BFS Game 4

This won't be much of a battle report. I was so tired and worn out, my adrenaline rush from Game 3 wore off. I pounded Coffee and Mt. Dew, but I was just simply not here for this game. I apologize to you all, this one will barely be worth reading. I also apologize to Sean Nayden, my opponent...I didn't put up much of a struggle, didn't make it a very fun game, and in fact I literally fell asleep at least two times during his movement.




Sean plays a very unconventional Dark Eldar list. I know it pretty well, as we'd discussed it several times over the last few months, though I'd never actually fought it. It goes something like this:
Archon with all the toys: Grenade Launcher; Huskblade; Soultrap; Drugs; Clone Field; Ghostplate Armour, and WWP...comes in at something like 210 points!
Drahzar...another expensive HQ, but man what an ass-kicker!
~8 Harlequin with Shadowseer, and a good number of Fusions and Kisses
7 (or 8?) Incubi
Two units of 15 Wyches each with 3 Shardnets and Haywires
2 Talos
a Cronos
and two units of Beasts...I believe 4 GM; 4 Razorwings; and 10 Kymhera

So he puts the Archon with the Harlies on the table, all else goes in reserve. The Shadowseer prevents almost all shooting at the Haemis even if he has to go second, and they move up ignoring terrain (as long as the Archon doesn't have to go in the terrain, anyway) and dropping the WWP near mid-field for all the beasties and pain to come through. It really breaks the meta, few folks know what to do and the speed of it all forces folks to make decisions quickly that they aren't used to making. If you see a razorback and a rhino, you know which one to shoot first....but if you see a beast herd, a talos, and some wyches coming at you, which do you pick? Tough call!

So this mission was the same as an earlier one: Spearhead; Quarters, Objectives, KP. Sean went first, deploying the Harlies and Archon as close to middle as possible.

 I deployed all the Reavers up forward, with intent to put the Hellions up to get in to the center terrain right away then hopefully clog up the WWP. After starting to deploy them there, I chickened out and changed my mind, instead putting them all far back in my corner. My hope was that he'd have to come to me (which he didn't) and I'd gun him down and assault whatever was left. Yeah, I know...bad plan. He went first, moved up a hair, deployed the portal and bubble wrapped it with the Harlies.

 I did Bladevane attacks with all three Reaver squads, killing the Archon  and all the Harlies. This was the only sensible thing I did all game. He got both beasts and a wych in. One of the beasts came off his table edge, eating a Reaver unit. The other Beast ate another Reaver unit, while the Wyches also ate a Reaver unit. I lost all three, but I think it was still a good trade.

I moved Venoms and Ravagers in to the far left corner to get LOS to Wyches, but he still had cover so my shooting was very ineffective. I don't think I moved the Hellions or Incubi at all...Zzzzz....

He got everything but one Talos in on turn 3. The Cronos came out of the portal, the incubi with Drazhar, Wyches, and Talos came in his table edge, getting close enough for the Talos to shoot down a Venom and the Incubi to assault and kill the Warriors. This was an absolute fail on my part, getting that close to his table edge was a boneheaded move that gave up a chunk of my shooting and gave the Incubi FNP making them extremely hard for the splinter fire and non-power weapons I pack to kill. His Beasts moved towards my quarter, while the other wyches spread out from the top right objective to center, holding both.

Realizing that I was being horribly outplayed and needed to do something decisive, I stumbled around some more and did a lot of nothing. I moved the Venoms and Ravagers back, shooting at something that I didn't kill enough of. I did manage to kill the Cronos, but I couldn't get enough wounds going on the Beasts. On his turn he moved up the Beasts and Incubi to pick on two more Venoms that I'd left too close, so I lost another Venom and had the gun ripped off a third. I finally decided to play a little warhammer here...The incubi moved up and disembarked, and the Hellions jumped down...both lined up to try a combined assault on his Incubi and Beasts. I hoped to generate enough wounds on the Beasts that fearless saves would kill off the Incubi. It almost worked, all his Incubi were killed, and he was left with just a handful of beasts. Sadly Drazhar beat up all but 3 Incubi, and Drahzar was not able to consolidate in to the fight so was able to roam free. Boo.

His turn, the other Beast unit swung around to hit the Wrack's venom, while Drazhar went in to kill the rest of my Incubi. My Hellions did their hit and run, moving towards his wyches and talos near the top left objective after failing to finish off the first Beast pack (I think it had 2 razorwings and 1 beast master left?). This was another horrible error...if I'd gone to the right, towards center-table, I had a chance to beat up the wych squad that was stretched between two objectives, getting away from Drahzar and further from the Beastpacks.

Instead I hit Wyches, barely scratched them, got charged by Drazhar and the Talos up there and got blown up. Drahzar himself killed 8 Hellions on the charge. Boo.

We quickly blew through to turn 6, really just as a learning exercise for me but also to ensure that he got credit for how many quarters he could get. He ended up taking 3 quarters, 3 objectives, and winning by like 12 to 4 on KP.

I really think my army is a horrible match-up for his, but I played so terribly due to being exhausted I didn't give myself even half a chance. Sean is a fun guy to play, and I'm really hoping we can get a rematch at our local store soon...I want to prove to myself that I can beat those sneaky Foot Dark Eldar...Athlete's Foot as Sean calls them!

Note the decided lack of Mt. Dew in those photos...games with Mt. Dew on the table always go better for me!