Battle Report: Dark Eldar versus Blood Angels!

I was lucky enough this past weekend to get two games in versus my friend and Ordo Ineptus clubmate Tim. Our first game was 2000 points 40k, with his Blood Angels facing off against my Dark Eldar. Our second was Hordes, with his Trollbloods going against my Skorne.


 

Tim is a VERY talented hobbyist, and I spent a lot of time Ooohing and Aaahing over his minatures. I took several pictures, but I think something is wrong with my camera’s lens…few of the photos came out, and even the best are mildly blurry and fuzzy. So, I hope you can extract from my poor photography how incredible these models look.

First some photos of his stuff before we got to gaming.

A Blood Angel Jump Infantry roasting a Tyranid Genestealer as it comes up through the ground.

 Death Company Dreadnought. I love the Talons! Poor little Genestealer! He’s got a heavy Space Hulk theme going that’s really awesome!

The Assault Terminators, with the shipboard deckplate basing, including cabletrays and errant piping and structure.

This is my favorite guy…using his Storm Shield to protect himself from the flaming fuel leak. The Lighting effect is incredible here…really incredible work!

His Librarian is really a thing of beauty!

Despite their natural resistance to the warping effects of Chaos, even a Maneater can sometimes succumb to Nurgle’s gifts! This guy has an extra head, and an appetite for his own intestines…not to mention a bit of a skin condition!

Sorry for the blur, but this is the same Nurgley Maneater, trailing his own intestine behind him. Gross!

This Thunderhammer wielding Ogre Tyrant has a taste for Brettonian horse-flesh. Tim sculpted almost everything on here from scratcth. Really sharp!

That horse-head reminds me of the Godfather.

Tim has a large Death Company contingent in his army, and they look gorgeous. They continue the ship-board theme with their bases, and the detail work on the gems and power weapons is out of this world! (Pun intended.)

For our game, we set up the table “Nova-style”, with a giant LOS blocking piece in the middle, a large area of terrain in the center of each quarter, and some smaller pieces in between them all. This still didn’t quite cover ¼ of the table, but was adequate.

We rolled Spearhead C&C. I rolled the #6 for drugs: free Pain for everybody!. I won the roll to go first, and since he lacked long-range shooting and it’s an objective mission, I had Tim go first.

I didn’t get a copy of his army list, but from memory he had:

Astorath the Grim

Librarian in Terminator Armour

Sanguinary Priest in Terminator Armour

Terminator Assault Squad (1 Claw; 4 TH/SS)

10 Assault Marines (I assume 2 Melta and a Fist)

10 Death Company (including Lemartes, and MANY power weapons)

Furioso Dreadnought with Magna Grapple in a Pod

Death Company Dreadnought with Blood Talons

Dreadnought with two TL-Autocannons

Stormraven with Lascannon

There was also an extra pod, I’m not sure who went in it, but he deployed them elsewhere and the pod came in empty turn 1.

I’m sure I’ve missed something, I apologize.

I was using my standard Dark Eldar list:

Baron Sathonyx

Haemonuclus (Venom Blade)

7 Incubi; Raider (Flickerfield; Enhanced Aethersails; Shockprow)

3 Wracks; Venom

5 Warriors (Blaster); Venom

5 Warriors (Blaster); Venom

5 Warriors (Blaster); Venom

19 Hellions (including Helliarch with Stunclaw)

6 Reavers (2 Heat Lances)

6 Reavers (2 Heat Lances)

6 Reavers (2 Heat Lances)

And 3 Ravagers (Dark Lances; Flickerfields)

He deployed his Stormraven as far forward as he could, with the Death Company on board. The Autocannon Dreadnought deployed in cover to see most of my quarter. The ASM with Astorath went forward with the Stormraven. All the Terminators (including Librarian and Priest) were deep striking, along with the Furioso with his Drop Pod Assault.

I deployed the Hellions and Reavers forward, with all the vehicles hiding behind a church. The Haemonculus deployed with the Incubi in their Raider; the Baron deployed with the Wracks (on foot).

On his first turn he moved the Storm Raven flat-out to get right on top of me. The ASM followed close behind. The Archer-dread shot at a Venom and Wrecked it

On my first turn, I pulled my typical forgetting an important detail: I moved two of the Reaver squads to get Melta shots on the Stormraven, forgetting its Ceramite armor! Woops! The third Reaver squad turbo-boosted near the archer-dread to give it something to worry about next turn. The Hellions moved forward ready to assault the ASM with Astorath.

The Raider moved over the church, with intent to be in a good spot to counter charge the Death Company on turn 2. The Ravagers slid down along my table edge, staying out of LOS of the Dreadnought while taking aim at the Stormraven. The disembarked Warriors ran in to the church.

In shooting, my Reavers of course failed to do anything (woops!), and the best my Ravagers could do was a Shake! The Hellions went in to what was left of the ASM after shooting, and annihilated them and Astorath, and consolidating a small bit away from the Stormraven. The Reavers shuffled away pointlessly away in the assault phase, and braced for the onslaught of the Death Company.

 The Furioso Dread came in, his Pod model missing (as was my flying stands…I think I might have left them at the BFS! Yikes!) right in the middle of my quarter. The Death Company got out and moved to engage Reavers near center-table; the Death Company Dread went after the Hellions.

Shooting took out another Warrior Venom, leaving the occupants in its crater. The Raider was blown up also, with one wound going on the Haemonculus and one Incubi dieing.

The Death Company didn’t bother to shoot at the Reavers, they just channeled their Rage in to a brutal attack that did something like 18 power wounds, annihilating the bikes and giving us both giggles at how ridiculous that unit is on the charge.

The Death Company Dreadnought missed several of his initial attacks, but still managed to kill 7 Hellions outright, and another was lost to Fearless wounds (good saves on my part there). The Hellions Hit & Run away from the Dreadnought, moving to the other side of the Stormraven, with an eye to take out the Deathcompany.

My turn 2, and Reavers moved to engage Dreadnoughts (one unit went after the Death Company one, the other after the Archer). Incubi ran out of their crater, stealing the Haemonculus’ Pain as he ran the other way (he’s not particularly brave ya see). The Helliosn lined up to shoot at and assault the Death Company, along with the Incubi.

Shooting was very successful, with Reavers taking out the Furioso, Ravagers taking out the Death Company Dreadnought, and Hellions taking out a few Death Company.

The combined assault from the Hellions and Incubi was very powerful, killing all but Lemartes himself, who was so shaken up by the assault that he failed to hit even a single Incubi! The Hellions hit & run away from the combat, heading around towards the enemy objective.

Things were going my way here, as all he had left effectively was a Dreadnought, the Stormraven, and the Terminators in Reserve. So, of course, the Terminators failed to come in when they might have made a difference. This was the deathknell for the Blood Angels, I believe, as there was not much left but some mopping up.

In assault Lemartes and the Incubi swung at the same time, and even with a wound on him already Lemartes still only killed two Incubi before being cut down. The lone Dreadnought was able to take down another Warrior Venom, but I was unconcerned at this point.

On my turn 3 the Reavers blew up his last dreadnought. Lances and Blasters pounded the Stormraven until it finally died. Hellions ran to get his objective, while the Incubi hunkered down in some ruins.

On his turn 4…with nothing left but some Pods on the table, his Terminators finally decided…to again not show up! So, nothing for him, my turn 4 I shot up a Pod…

And on his turn 5, the Terminators finally showed up! They dropped near the Incubi, with our only intent being to have some fun at this point. The Librarian used Fear the Darkness on the Incubi, but they passed…they LOVE the dark! The last Incubi ran out to assault the Terminators.

Unsurprisingly, 4 Incubi are not much good versus a full Terminator Assault squad…I believe no Terminators dead and the Incubi were killed three-times over J

It was a very fun and fast-paced game. Tim is just coming to 40k from Fantasy, and is very quickly becoming a very fearsome general. With how he paints and how quickly he’s learning the game, I expect to see him at top tables in tournaments coming up!

I was again pleased with how my army worked, with the speed to make up for my mistakes and to take advantage of the enemy’s. Situations like this really make me want to keep the Incubi…hard to argue with the ~7 power wounds they can dish out!

Thanks for the great game, Tim! Next week we’re going to try to get a Fantasy game in…my first Fantasy game in almost a year. Yikes! I don’t know what to do against all those Ogres!!

*Late Edit* I almost forgot the coolest part. Tim set up a "time lapse" video of our game using his Ipad. Enjoy!