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This Battle report was a fight between my dark eldar army and my friend Kevin's Dark Angels. As this report is being played before the release of codex: Dark Angels, Kev was going to use the standard space marine codex. We had agreed to a 1500pt fight. We used strategy ratings to determine what type of mission we were going to play, Kev won and he decided we would play a battle. Now all we had to do was pick our armies and the mission !
DARK ELDAR PLAN
Grahame: Fighting space marines is hard with the Dark Eldar, but hopefully I could pull off a win. I decided to have a fairly large amount of well equipped troops just on the off chance that we would be playing the meat grinder mission. As the troops are the only ones that are allowed to come back on, I thought it best to have a few of them. So I chose
10 Dark eldar warriors, 2 with dark lance ( squad Belegost )
10 Dark eldar warriors, 2 with dark lance ( squad Dagorlad )
These would hopefully be used to take out any tanks that Kev brought on. And failing that, he is bound to have terminators on for them to shoot at. I planned to deploy them in the centre of my deployment zone where they would hopefully have a better field of fire.
20 Dark eldar warriors, 2 with splinter cannon, sybarite with agonizer and splinter pistol (squad Turamarth )
20 Dark eldar warriors, 2 with splinter cannon, sybarite with agonizer and splinter pistol ( squad Aglareb )
These would be deployed on either flank of the dark lance units, to protect them from flank assaults from space marine assault squads.
10 Dark eldar warriors, 1 with blaster, 1 with splinter cannon, sybarite with agonizer and splinter pistol - Mounted in a Raider (squad Ennorath)
these would be deployed on one of my extreme flanks to assault the marines from the flank, and hopefully drive them in towards the centre where my dark lances will be waiting for them !
My army still needed a HQ Unit, so I decided to take:
Umarth (Archon) with splinter pistol, agonizer, shadow field
5 Incubi, 1 with shredder
The whole unit would be mounted in a raider.
This unit was going to be deployed on one of the extreme flanks, with the same tactics as the raider squad.
I had decided that there wasn't enough units to attack the flanks with so more units were bought to aid the raiders and archon. These were
1 haemonculus with stinger and scissorhand
7 Wyches, 2 with shredder, succubus with agonizer, all mounted in raider. (The haemonculus would be joining this unit)
9 Mandrakes
The mandrakes would appear where they are most needed at the time, probably to support the Wyches or the raider squad in an assault
For the final touch I decided to include a talos in my army, to bolster the firepower and to assault tanks.
Now all I needed to do was find out what mission I was going to be fighting!
Ill hand you over to Kev now so that he can explain his army selection.
Kevin: :Having played Dark Eldar before, I knew I was going to be outnumbered by a very rapid moving enemy force. Therefore I would need to have weapons capable of taking out large numbers of troops. Fortunately the space marines' standard armament of the bolt gun deprives basic Dark Eldar troops of any armour save. My best defence against lots of Dark Eldar would, therefore, probably be lots of tactical space marines. I have a large number of predefined squads from previous games and to kick off my army selection I took 3 of my best tactical squads. 2nd tactical squad is a standard 10-man squad with flamer and missile launcher. 3rd tactical squad, one of my most successful units, is a 10-man squad, armed with a flamer and transported in a rhino fitted with a pintle-mounted storm bolter. 5th tactical squad is a 10-man squad with flamer and heavy bolter. The heavy bolter is another weapon I have found to be particularly effective against the Dark Eldar. In an effort to include more of these excellent weapons I added a recently acquired Razorback, armed with twin-linked heavy bolter, to transport 1st tactical squad - a 6-man squad with flamer. To finish off my troops choices I added 2nd scout squad, a large squad armed with a mix of weapons. I wanted some serious anti-infantry heavy support so I took a Predator Destructor and a Whirlwind. I didn't want too many vehicles for fear of dark lances, so my third and final heavy support choice was 9th Devastator squad - 10 men with 2 heavy bolters and 2 missile launchers. I was tempted to include a squad of terminators to provide some valuable anti-infantry fire but past experience has showed me that terminators are particularly vulnerable to blasters. The Dark Eldar have a frightening knack of closing very rapidly and firing nasty weapons at close range. With the points I had left over I took an Eversor assassin. This is one of my favorite units, it's so simple to use in combat. Just point it at the enemy and let it go! It's not usually that effective but at only 50 points who cares! Finally I had just enough points to take a space marine commander armed with a storm bolter and power sword to lead my army.
HQ: Commander with storm bolter, power weapon 85pts
Elites: Eversor Assassin with bolt pistol, power weapon, combat drugs 50pts
Troops: 1st Tactical Squad 185pts consisting of Veteran sergeant with bolter-flamer and combi-weapon, Space marine with flamer, 4 Space marines with bolt gun, Razorback with twin-linked heavy bolters
2nd Tactical Squad 196pts consisting of Veteran sergeant with bolt pistol and close combat weapon and teleport homer, Space marine with flamer, Space marine with missile launcher, 7 Space marines with bolt gun
3rd Tactical Squad 241pts consisting of Veteran sergeant with bolt pistol and power weapon and teleport homer, Space marine with flamer, 8 Space marines with bolt gun, Rhino with storm bolter and pintle-mounted storm bolter
4th Tactical Squad 161pts consisting of Sergeant with bolt pistol and close combat weapon, Space marine with flamer, Space marine with heavy bolter, 7 Space marines with bolt gun
2nd Scout Squad 175pts consisting of Sergeant with bolt pistol and close combat weapon and frag grenades, Scout with heavy bolter and frag grenades, 4 Scouts with sniper rifle and frag grenades, 4 Scouts with bolt gun and frag grenades
Heavy Support: 9th Devastator Squad 220pts consisting of Sergeant with bolt gun, 2 Space marines with heavy bolter, 2 Space marines with missile launcher, 5 Space marines with bolt gun
Predator Destructor with autocannon and 2 heavy bolters 110pts
Whirlwind with whirlwind multi-laucher and smoke launchers 78pts
Dark Angels Plan
I knew Grahame would probably make use of his 3 raiders to rapidly advance his close combat troops. His units armed with dark lances would probably try and hide behind cover at the back of the battlefield and pick off my tanks. The rest of his troops could be expected to steadily advance towards my lines. The advantage of having an enemy that likes to advance towards you is that you can forget about closing with the enemy and concentrate of pouring large numbers of bullets into them. Of course the disadvantage is that if you don't kill enough of them then the resulting close combat will be a rather messy affair. I intended to deploy the majority of my troops in good firing positions in order to cut a swathe through the Dark Eldar advance. The devastators and the predator would be placed where they had the best fire arcs and could give support to the rest of my army. The exception to this strategy is in the case of Dark Eldar squads armed with dark lances. I expected Grahame to hide these at the back of his lines with more expendable troops in front preventing me from firing at them. I know dark lances are very effective against space marines and I wanted to take them out as soon as possible. For this I would be tasking 1st and 2nd tactical squads to charge forward in their transports to engage the enemy support positions at close range. I knew this would be a risky tactic but hopefully Grahame would not be expecting it so it just might work! I would hide my Whirlwind behind the biggest piece of terrain I could find and fire it at the largest concentrations of enemy troops. The effectiveness of the whirlwind depends a lot on chance so it is not good at targeting specific enemy models. I find it works best when there is a good chance of actually hitting something. It's also great when one your enemy's fast moving units gets pinned! I would attempt to place my assassin and commander opposite Grahame's close combat troops to give as much support as possible. I consider both of them to be expendable so long as they can hold off the Dark Eldar charge.
The Battle
Grahame: Both our armies were now chosen, so it was just down to fighting the actual battle!. I rolled to see what mission we would be playing, and rolled a 5. We were going to play bunker assault. At least it wasn't meat grinder!. I rolled for my Wyches combat drugs and got a 2. This would give the Wyches +1 WS, meaning they would hit all but the most hardened space marines on a 3+ !.The armies were deployed as shown in the diagram below, Kev could only start with his troops and HQ units on. The rest of his army was placed in reserve.
We rolled to see who would get the first turn, and I won the dice roll, choosing to strike first.
Dark Eldar turn 1:
Kevin: Grahame got the first turn and moved out exactly as I had predicted. Squads Turimarth and Aglareb advanced towards the Dark Angels positions, making good use of their fleet feet. Squads Belegost and Dagorlad held position to fire their Dark Lances. Grahame's 3 raiders sped towards their enemy, the Wyches disembarking to engage the hapless 2nd tactical squad. The talos moved in close behind to give support. In the shooting phase squad Belegost fired at the Razorback of 1st tactical squad, hoping to hit the turret barely visible behind an intervening hill. The one glancing hit inflicted managed to blow off the vehicle's twin-linked heavy bolters. This was followed up by the Dark Eldar HQ raider, which managed to inflict another hit, shaking the crew. The second raider nearby shot at the rhino of 3rd tactical squad. The vehicle was flipped over onto its side, causing even more chaos inside. The battered marines all managed to survive to emerge disoriented and still pinned! On the opposite flank the talos and wyches poured fire into 2nd tactical squad, killing 3 of the still dazed marines before the wyches charged into close combat. The marines suddenly got their wits together and fought back. The intervening wall allowed the marines to strike at the same time as the wyches but only 3 of them were involved in the scrap and they only managed to kill 1 of the wyches. The wyches managed to kill 2 of the marines who, again, failed the commander's leadership test and fell back. (I knew I should have taken a chaplain!) In the centre of the battlefield, squad Dagorlad fired at the bunker and managed to damage it twice. The marines of 4th tactical squad put their faith in the Emperor and hoped that the crumbling building would hold together.
Space Marine turn 1:
Grahame: There was little movement from the space marines this turn because a large portion of the army was pinned by the Dark Eldar preliminary bombardment. The razorback moved towards the Dark Eldar HQ raider, and deployed its troops. The scouts opened up upon squad Turamarth, and managed to kill 5 warriors. The Dark Eldar passed the resulting leadership test with ease. 4th tactical squad shot from the safety of their bunker at squad Dagorlad, wounding 2 with their heavy bolter, but 1 saved due to the cover it was in. 1st tactical squad shot at squad Aglareb, and with 2 flamer shots they managed to kill 7 warriors, including the sybarite and the blaster !. They then assaulted the HQ raider, managing to hit it twice, but failing to penetrate its armour. That was the end of the Space Marines first turn, which was surprisingly uneventful.
Dark Eldar turn 2:
Kevin: Clearly unimpressed by the defence the space marines were putting up, the Dark Eldar continued their advance on the bunker. On the left flank the wyches pursued the withdrawing 2nd tactical squad and used fleet of foot to get into a good close assault position. The talos moved up in support and managed to gun down two of the marines. Squad Turamarth crested the hill and peppered the woods in front of the bunker with splinter-cannon rounds, felling one of the space marine scouts secreted there. Suddenly, as if from nowhere, a squad of sinister mandrakes appeared before the surprised scouts and prepared for assault. On the opposite flank 1st tactical squad's Razorback took a severe beating. The crew compartment was shaken violently as the dark lances of Squad Belegost hit their mark. This was followed up Grahame's HQ raider blowing the tracks off the vehicle, immobilizing it. The other raider nearby fired a shot at the distant bunker but failed to penetrate the already weakened walls. Squad Dagorlad had better luck but only managed to damage the structure further. Having disembarked from their raider, Umarth and his retinue fired at 1st tactical squad from behind and managed to kill two of the armoured figures before closing in to finish them off. 1st tactical squad was cut to pieces by the Umarth and his Incubi. In the centre of the battlefield the newly arrived mandrakes charged into the woods to engage the scouts. The scouts were prepared, however, and a shower of fragmentation grenades fell upon the mandrakes. In the resulting confusion the scouts managed to kill two of the assailants for the loss of one scout. The mandrakes held firm though, and the fight would go on. On the left flank 2nd tactical squad had lost the advantage of cover and the wyches managed to slay the majority of the marines, including the Dark Angels commander. The sergeant of 2nd tactical squad managed to keep the remaining 3 marines together and they dispatched one of the wyches before preparing to sell their lives dearly.
Space Marine turn 2:
Grahame: The first of the Dark Angel reserves came on, in the form of a whirlwind tank, a devastator squad and an eversor assassin. The remains of 3rd tactical squad advanced from the wreck of their rhino, towards the raiders in the open. The whirlwind moved to a firing position behind the bunker. The devastators and assassin then appeared in front of the wyches and 4th tactical squad. 3rd tactical squad shot at the HQ raider, destroying the dark lance with a flamer shot. 4th tactical squad shot at the other raider in the open, but failed to penetrate its fragile armour. In the assault phase the scouts continued the fight with the mandrakes, killing 4 mandrakes and taking no losses in return. The mandrakes failed the subsequent morale check and ran back towards their table edge, with the scouts hot on their heels. The eversor assassin and the devastator squad charged into the wyches. The eversor managed to kill 2 wyches, but lost a wound in the process. The devastators overwhelmed the remaining wyches, killing them all, and wounding the haemonculus leading them, who subsequently failed his morale check and ran from the enemy. This effectively ended the space marine turn. This turn proved to be more effective for the space marines than the first.
Dark Eldar turn 3:
Kevin: With fierce melees raging in the centre and on the left flank of the battlefield, Umarth and his retinue charged into the remnants of 3rd tactical squad on the right. Their damaged raider decided move away from the action and take refuge behind a nearby hill. The other raider of the right sped on towards the bunker and disgorged its cargo of troops at its base. The combined fire of these troops, the raider and squad Dagorlad failed to make a mark on the battered building. The wyches' raider, having sped over from the left flank, added its dark lance to the rain of fire and managed to deliver the killing blow. With an almighty crunch the bunker collapsed in on itself, crushing 3 marines of 4th tactical squad in the process. The survivors managed to pick themselves up from the rubble, only to be raked with fire from the rapidly approaching squad Aglareb, causing another 2 space marine casualties. In front of the ruined bunker the scouts were shot at by squad Belegost and the rallying mandrakes. Three proud young warriors fell to the heavy weapons of squad Belegost and another to the mandrakes before they charged back into the fray. The mandrakes slew two more of the scouts for the loss of one more mandrake. Behind them in the ruins of the bunker, squad Ennorath charged into the battered marines of 4th tactical squad but only managed to kill two of them before the marines struck back, felling one of the Dark Eldar. The marines passed their leadership test and stood their ground. On the flanks the Dark Eldar fared slightly better. The Umarth slew 4 marines of 3rd tactical squad, leaving a single Dark Angels warrior. He refused to give in and carried on the fight against the Dark Eldar's finest. The other flank saw the talos assault the newly arrived 9th devastator squad, killing 3 of them and brushing off the puny slashes inflicted by the marines. Locked in close combat the devastators were finding their heavy weapons more of a hindrance than a help!
Space Marine turn 3:
Grahame: Kev rolled for his reserves and rolled a 1 for his remaining predator, which would not be joining us for another turn. The only movement in the space marine camp was the assassin moving towards the lone haemonculus and the last survivor from 2nd tactical squad moved to a position to assault the talos (seemed like a good idea at the time - Kev). In the shooting phase, the assassin shot at the haemonculus with his bolt pistol, failing to wound the master torturer. The whirlwind launched a salvo of missiles at squad Dagorlad, the gunner had overshot, but the wind blew it into the edge of the dark lance unit, killing 2 of them. The unit passed its subsequent pinning test with ease. In the assault phase the last remaining scout killed one of the attacking mandrakes, but was then killed himself. 3rd tactical squad lost 2 of their number to Umarth and his retinue, leaving only 1 man left. 4th tactical squad fought valiantly against squad Ennorath, but failed to kill any warriors. Squad Ennorath killed 2 marines in return, causing the marines to flee in panic. The assassin assaulted the haemonculus, ripping him to shreds with ease. The devastators and the sole survivor from 2nd tactical squad attacked the talos, causing 2 wounds which were easily saved by the thick armour of the talos, who killed 4 devastators in return. This ended the space marine turn, and Kev was looking a bit worried as he only had about 15 models left on the table!.
Dark Eldar Turn 4:
Kevin: On the left flank squad Turamarth advanced towards the imperial assassin and the nearby mandrakes used fleet of foot to move in to support. The massed guns of squad Turamarth were impossible for the assassin to dodge and he disappeared in a hail of splinters. Squad Aglareb used fleet of foot to come to the aid of the squad Ennorath. It was not really necessary, however, as squad Ennorath shot dead the last marine of 4th tactical squad before moving on towards the whirlwind. Their raider fired a shot at the marine vehicle and managed to hit it, shaking the crew. On the flanks the Umarth and his retinue and the talos wiped out the remaining marines of 3rd and 9th squads respectively. The talos advanced towards the 2nd tactical squad sergeant, thirsting for more carnage!
Space Marine turn 4:
Grahame: The predator finally managed to arrive this turn, and was deployed near the squad Ennorath. It shot at the raider, tearing through its fragile armour and sending it plummeting to the ground. The talos finally managed to kill the last man in Squad 2, and advanced towards the whirlwind.
Dark Eldar turn 5:
Kevin: With only two space marine vehicles left to destroy, there was little for the Dark Eldar to do. The raider in the centre of the battlefield shot and destroyed the predator with one shot! From the left flank the talos skimmed in to assault the whirlwind. However, after easily beating the courageous Dark Angels warriors, the savage machine failed to make a single mark on the large stationary vehicle! The Dark Angels would fight on. (Like what can one tank do?)
Space Marine Turn 5:
Grahame: The whirlwind aimed its multiple rocket launcher at squad Aglareb, its targeters were aligned perfectly and it managed to kill 7 people from the squad !!. The talos didn't take this too kindly and launched an all out assault against the whirlwind, destroying it utterly, and leaving nothing but a smoking wreck.
Turn 6:
Grahame: With no Space marines left on the battlefield, the dark eldar packed up all of their captives, and made back for Commoragh. There was going to be a lot of new space marines for the haemonculi to work with !!.
Kevin: As the sounds of sinister celebration died down and energy emissions disappeared from their scanners, the crew of the Dark Angels predator cautiously opened a hatch. They saw before them scenes of utter carnage and disarray. With grim realization they knew they would have to somehow get their battered vehicle working again and report a major defeat to their masters.
Final Victory Points:
Dark Eldar 1650
Space Marines 414
Dark Eldar conclusions:
Well, what can I say? it all went perfectly. The flankers failed to draw the space marines into the centre of the battlefield, they just killed them instead!. I must admit, I owe a lot to that first preliminary bombardment. Out of 5 units, I managed to roll a 6 for 3 of them, killing 5 marines and pinning 2 units !!. Had the devastators and the whirlwind been allowed to deploy at the start of the battle, it could have been a completely different result, I think this mission is one where dark eldar should always win, as the enemy does not start with its full army, but the dark eldar do. If you can take out most of the initial starting force before the reserves come on, you should walk this mission. The only changes I would have made would have been to replace the mandrakes with grotesques, as the mandrakes weren't as effective against the enemy as I thought they would be. All in all, a resounding victory for the dark eldar !.
Dark Angel conclusions:
Kevin: Well that was a close one. I think the intersection of several complex factors led to my eventual downfall. Who am I kidding, I got totally wasted! This was, in part, due to my army selection. I had practically ignored my own advice and taken four armoured vehicles. This was mainly because I was choosing from predefined units, two of which had transport vehicles. I think the whirlwind was a wise choice but the others were more of a liability. The other main factor in my defeat was the incredible Dark Eldar preliminary barrage. The marines on both flanks were pinned and unable to do anything to stop the enemy. Combined with the fact that most of army was in reserve, this meant I could offer no resistance to Grahame's forces until it was too late. He was able to take on my units in a piecemeal fashion with inevitable results. But enough bitterness, time for a detailed analysis of tactics.
As I said before, vehicles are not as effective as troops against Dark Eldar. The predator destructor has excellent weapons for the job but gets killed too easily. I had used two transport vehicles in an attempt to get some of my troops close enough to engage Grahame's dark lances. This was partly due to a fear of the Dark Eldar's ability in close combat. However, I was not that impressed with their ability in this or previous games so in future I think I will take proper assault troops for the job. Assault terminators would be perfect as long as they could deep strike, but watch out for those blasters! The devastator squad I chose is excellent against Dark Eldar but the mission put them in reserve. This was a major blow as they would not be able to lend their fire for a minimum of three turns. Most heavy weapons cannot fire in the first turn they arrive because they can't move or fire. The main exception to this is tanks but we don't want too many of them. I considered using a landspeeder tornado but I only have one just now and it would be an easy target. I will soon have a force of 6 landspeeder tornados, however, along with several bike squadrons. It will be interesting to see how the Dark Eldar fare against Ravenwing. All things considered I think a few foolish force choices combined with some very bad luck caused the outcome of the battle. This is first defeat my Dark Angels have suffered under the new rules and the first time ever my entire force has been destroyed. I don't intend to repeat the experience and I look forward to getting revenge in the next battle!
One point of note. The intelligent reader will be aware that my razorback was immobilized and had had its armament destroyed early in the game. Grahame decided that since he would already get the points for it, there would be no point in totally destroying it. However, this meant that I had two space marines sitting in a tank doing nothing while a battle raged on around them. Surely they should be able to get out and lend a hand. You never know, the added firepower of two bolt pistols may have turned the tide against the Dark Eldar!
