Baron Malagant's Kabal takes to the skies!

I've almost finished assembling all the new parts for my latest Dark Eldar force, and actually got it on the table for a game last week!

I'm still thinking on color scheme for this force...I want to keep with the terracotta/rust-red, black, and bone theme. I'd like to do some edging with a lighter color (maybe vermin brown...quick, easy, no mixing required!) for everything (at least the reavers and skyboards). I'll get a test model done and posted for folks to give me feedback on...like anyone actually reads this! :)

I was really happy with how easy everything went together. I was expecting a nightmare with the two-handed weapons...those tend to give me fits as I glue things to myself far too often!...but they went pretty well. The Venoms in particular were a breeze to get together! For the Baron, I'm just using a regular Hellion, with some spikey parts stuck to his "Custom" Skyboard, and a head that will allow me to give him some really bright hair...my daughter says it should be Pink...ug! :P

I did have some trouble on the table with the Hellions, though...they refused to stay on their bases! These are the newer ball and socket type stands, but some of the balls (and/or sockets) just don't seem to fit right. Almost half my hellions refused to stay flying. You'll see in the pictures of the battle that most of the time I just used the stands, and set the actual model to the side. Moving was a giant hassle, and I slowed the game down WAY too much just trying to stick things back upright. One would fall off, causing a domino-effect knocking others over...it was painful!

The battle was a lot of fun. I played my good friend Eric, who I hadn't gotten to play 40k with in almost a year! He was using my arch-nemesis...mech Imperial Guard. As I recall, his list was:

CCS with MoF, 2 Bodyguards, 2 regular guys, and honestly I don't remember what they were armed with, but they had a Chimera w/ Hull Hvy Flamer
PCS with flamers, I think, in Chimera w/ Hull Hvy Flamer
2 10-man squads with flamers in Chimeras w/ Hull Hvy Flamers
10-man Psyker Battle Squad in Chimera w/ Hull Hvy Flamer
3 Veteran squads (1 had Plasma, 1 had Flamers, and 1 had Melta)
3 Vendettas
2 Hydras
and a Leman Russ...I don't remember name, the one with the Plasma Cannon gun and side sponsons.

I used my Baron list:
Baron Sathonyx Malagant
Haemonculous
7 Incubi in a Raider with Flickerfield and Enhanced Aethersails
3 Wracks in a Venom with xtra Cannon
three units each of 5 Warriors (1 with Blaster) in Venoms with xtra Cannons
three units each of 6 Reavers (2 with Heat Lance)
and the ubiquitous 3 Ravagers with Lances and Flickerfields

I laid out the terrain to cover 1/4 of the table, then spread it out. I envisioned the edge of a city, with hills and forest on one side and ruined buildings on the other. I think the terrain maybe ended up being a bit too much, but it made for a fun interesting game.

My standard disclaimor...the power-point map is from memory, and is not to scale. If there are mistakes, they are likely due to my memory of the game, not how we actually played the game!

We rolled Kill Points and Spearhead...my two least favorite :) With the Baron's help I won the roll to go first, and chose the quarter with the densest terrain to cower in.

I set up the Baron with the Wracks on foot, and the Haemi with the Hellions. The Reavers were in position to give and have cover in case he seized the initiative. He deployed his Hydras in the far corner. The LRBT was front and center, with all the Chimeras and Vendettas following behind.

He failed to seize, luckily, and off I went. The Haemi left the Hellions and got in the Wracks' Venom, leaving his Pain Point behind...the Hellions jumped around a big church. The Baron left the Wracks, taking their Pain Point, and joined the Hellions behind the church. The Wracks got in the Venom joining with the Haemi. The central Reavers moved behind a small wall where I thought they might have range to the LRBT. The others Turboed to where I thought they'd be safe from assault or flamer-fire. The Incubi Raider uesed it's Sails and zipped behind the forest near the Reavers, where they could support and be supported by the Hellions, who ran in to and in front of the church. Venoms moved a bit, trying to stay low profile and waiting for squishy Mon-Keighs to fall out of transports.

The Reavers turned out to be just out of range, at about 10-11". They shot anyway...a glance can kill with AP1...but did nothing. Ravager fire did pretty well, stunning a Vendetta and stunning and Weapon Destroy the LRBT.

As it turns out, I guessed poorly, as the stunned (shaken due to Extra Armour) Vendetta moved over and dropped the flamer Veterans in range of a Reaver squad. One Chimera moved to the top of the hill, others shuffled to get LOS, and the shooting began.

The flamer vets dropped 4 Reavers, the PBS dropped their LD to 2, and they ran off. Vendetta fire exploded a Ravager; a Reaver was lost from the middle gang; and I believe two Venoms made their Flickerfield saves.

Sad to lose a Reaver squad so early, something I consistently do. Nothing to do but press on! The Venoms move to get LOS to the troops on the ground. Right Reavers move to shoot at Vendetta, with possible combined assault in to the Veterans if the Vendetta doesn't die. Other Reavers move to shoot at other Vendetta. The Raider moves and the Incubi get out so they can either assault troops that fall out of Vendetta, or worst case assault one of the Chimeras that didn't move. Hellions jump up and run ready to assault the Chimera on the hill, and hopefully one or two others.

Shooting isn't horrible, as one Vendetta explodes; another is immobilized. The Flamer Veterans are splintered off the table. The Incubi run around behind a Chimera, preventing anyone from getting out. The Hellions explode the Chimera on the hill, and do Stun, Weapon Destroyed, and Immobilized on the other. The Incubi manage to Stun the Chimera they assault too. The Reavers move in to cover.

The Guard respond with calm confidence. The melta veterans get out of their immobilized Vendetta ready to engage the Incubi, and the CCS gets out and runs around the front of their Chimera ready to join the squad on the hill in taking on the Hellions. The other squad's Chimera moves to flamer the Reavers in the Vendetta-crater, while the PBS moves up to support the attack on the Hellions. The LRBT moves to get LOS to the Hellions also.

Shooting puts a lot of hurt on the Hellions, killing enough for a Morale test. Luckily the PBS fails it's Ld test, so the Hellions survive the shooting phase! The Incubi are not so lucky, as four of them are shot down, they fail their Morale and run off the table. The second Reaver squad is flamered to death, and another Ravager blows up. Sigh. One of the Venoms has both Cannons destroyed.

The Guardsmen are not impressed by the aerial performance of the Hellions, so the CCS and the Squad assault them! I6 and Defensive Grenades prove too much to overcome, however, as both squads are gutted in melee, lost combat by a ton, run off and are destroyed.

Well that could certainly have gone worse. I'm down to one Ravager and one squad of bikes, so ability to deal with tanks is becoming limited. Onward! The Hellions move to hit the two non-moving Chimeras, while the Reavers move to open up the one that has the PCS inside, or the Vendetta, depending on how things go. Venoms get LOS to the melta-vets...

...8 of which are killed, the other 2 start running. The PCS Chimera is exploded by the Reavers, so the Hellions run to engage them in melee along with the Chimera the CCS had been in. Lance fire beats up the LRBT, taking off another weapon and immobilizing it. I fail to do anything with the northern-most Venom (it was out of LOS behind the tank-farm, and I missed it!) Fail.

In Assault the Hellions wipe out the PCS and explode the Chimera. Reavers move back in to the trees...lurking...

With lots of big guns still on the table, the Guard move confidently to deal with the Hellion threat. A Hydra triees to move in to the woods to get in flamer range, but immobilizes itself. The other learns from his partner and just moves to the edge. The PBS Chimera moves to get in Flamer range, while the last squad Chimera relocates.

Shooting drops a few Reavers, all but 4 Hellions (who are now fearless), the last Ravager, and a Warrior Venom. Ouch! The more I kill, the more effective their shooting gets!

Ignore that ranom explosion at the bottom left....powerpoint fail.

Turn 4, and I'm about to be wiped out, it seems. I'd wanted to have things out of their vehicles for the Hellions to get tied up with this turn, but it can't happen. I decide to send the Hellions after the Hydras (thinking that the immobilized one in particular would be easy prey), and send the Reavers vs. the PBS Chimera, hoping that they could pop it and assault the squishy brain-boys. Sadly they fail their dangerous terrain in true Ordo fasion, and are left with only two bikes remaining!

My shooting did nothing of note here, though I continued to pound the LRBT hoping for a KP with little luck. The Reavers shot at the PBS Chimera, doing nothing Similarly, I'd parked a Raider hiding behind the immoblized Vendetta, which did nothing...sigh...

The Hellions assault was ineffective. Both Hydras were Stunned, and the non-immobilzed one became Immobile....sigh...

On his turn, he did somet hings that were unexpected. The PBS got out of their Chimera, preparing to charge the Reavers....whaaaa?! The last Squad drove over by the Hellions and got out, ready to unload on them.

His shooting wiped out the Reavers (leaving the PBS standing there...) and killed 2 more Hellions, leaving just the Helliarch and Baron. We talked for a bit about the Squad, debating if they should RF or assault. We decided Assault would probably be best (though I don't remember why...), but when the dice were rolled, the Hellions took no losses, killing many IG, who held...but the Hellions Hit & Ran away. Later we realized that they couldn't have assaulted, since they'd disembarked, but no big deal...these things happen. Shooting at them in cover with FNP would have been nearly pointless...I think math-hammer says that boils down to .8 wounds, not counting the Baron's Shadowfield.

Hoping for some easy kill points, the Hellions hit the immobilzed Hydras. I foolishly got the Wracks out to assault the PBS...someone remind me next time I consider doing this...Wracks suck! Venom fire in to the PBS does almost nothing thanks to cover saves.

The Wracks had to assault through cover, so going last, they lost 2 to the PBS and the last guy was caught and killed, doing nothing but losing me a Kill Point. Sigh. The Baron wrecked one of the Hydras, but the Helliarch is only hitting at S4, so did nothing...mental note: in vehicle-heavy environment, let the Helliarch die early!

I guess due to Time we stopped here. Either he should have had another turn, or I completely spaced out for his last turn with no idea what happened. Either way, it ended here, with me up 10 to 9. If we'd done out his turn, I would likely have lost a Venom or Two, and either the Helliarch or the Baron (or both!). So while it was a win as we counted it, it was likely to be his game overall.

I felt very good about how things went. With some slightly differnt play (noteably the placment of Reavers on turn 1 and the Wrack assault on turn 5) I could have easily swing this to a win. If doing Nova missions, I had more maneuverable things to claim/hold objectives or quarters, too (I think). I'm overall quite happy with how the list played, and how I ran it. It's definitely not a "point & shoot" style army, which is what I wanted to get away from, and it can defintely compete...so I think I'm happy with it!

I'll get some photos up soon of my test color-scheme. I'm using a "quick" method with some rust-colored spray as a base-coat. Negatives so far: it's very slow drying, so I've left thumbprints in a lot of skyboards; and spraying the basecoat over the black primer is a mistake...losing a lot of detail :(

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed! Comments and feedback welcome!!