Battle Report: Dark Eldar vs. Imperial Fists!

I admit it: I've been neglecting my Planetary Empires painting duties; my terrain-building duties; and my Skorne painting duties. I have no excuse, other than I've been actually playing a lot of games!

I was lucky enough to have a very nice game against a very nice man that went by the online name Brother Captain Herald, using a very exciting Imperial Fist army!

In this game, I once again proved to myself that I'm REALLY good at forgeting the most important little details...




I was using my Baron-led Dark Eldar, with a significant change: basically it drops the Incubi for two units of 3 Trueborn with Blasters in Venoms. Here's my list:

Baron Sathonyx
Haemonculus
3 Trueborn (Blasters); Venom (2 Cannon)
3 Trueborn (Blasters); Venom (2 Cannon)
3 Wracks; Venom (2 Cannon)
5 Warriors (Blaster); Venom (2 Cannon)
5 Warriors (Blaster); Venom (2 Cannon)
5 Warriors (Blaster); Venom (2 Cannon)
17 Hellions + Helliarch
6 Reavers (2 Heat Lance)
6 Reavers (2 Heat Lance)
6 Reavers (2 Heat Lance)
and The Ubiquitous 3 Ravagers, with no Flickerfields

I'm not sold on this, but the amount of firepower increase is significant. I really miss the "threat" and "pressure" of the Incubi, but I'll try a few games like this and see how it goes.

And here's BCH's army:

Captain Darnath Lysander - 200 pts
Space marine librarian in Terminator armour - 125
Null Zone, The gate of Infinity
Ironclad Dreadnought - 190
Heavy Flamer, Multi-melta
Drop Pod - Locator Beacon
Ironclad Dreadnought - 190
Heavy Flamer, Multi-melta
Drop Pod - Locator Beacon
Sternguard Veteran Squad - 265
4 Combi-melta's, 3 Bolters
1 Sgt
Drop Pod Locator beacon
Tactical Squad - 235
7 - Bolters
1 - Meltagun
1 - Missle launcher
Sgt
Rhino - Extra armour, PMS
Tactical Squad - 235
7 - Bolters
1 - Meltagun
1 - Missle launcher
Sgt
Rhino - Extra armour, PMS
Tactical Squad - 235
7 - Bolters
1 - Meltagun
1 - Missle launcher
Sgt
Rhino - Extra armour, PMS
Whirlwind - 85
Predator - 120
Autocannon, Sponson Las cannon
Predator - 120
Autocannon, Sponson Las cannon

So a nice firebase with the Predators and Whirlwinds...my Hellions were not thrilled with the idea of fighting the Whirlwind!; 3 solid Tactical squads in Rhinos; and 3 mean drop-pod hammers, along with Lysander's meanness and a utility Librarian.
 
I wasn't all that thrilled about the Whirlwind...I live on my Cover Saves, but wasn't too worried about the rest. I figured the Heat Lances would make mincemeat of the Predators, the Hellions could out-fight the Tacticals, and Venoms, Ravagers and Blasters would beat up everything else. A nice general plan that sums up to: kill him. Great plan!
 
We rolled Annihilation and Dawn of War. With the Baron's help, I won the roll and asked him to go first. I wanted the Drop Pods in before I rolled on, where the Heat Lances could get nice and close and kill some Ironclad! I rolled +1S for drugs...my personal favorite.
 
He deployed nothing. I put the Hellions with Haemonculus as far forward as I could, spread out to max coherency with just over half the models in area terrain. I expected the Ironclads to come in and flame me down, so had to hope to minimize the models hit by templates and hope for good FNP rolls!
 
I didn't try to seize, and off we went!
 
He walked on the Sternguard, which kind of surprised me; they walked in behind some cover. The vehicles rumbled on, and as predicted the two Ironclads dropped in near the Hellions.
 

Then the first of one of my "whoops" forgetful moments. As I'd said, I'd expected to have to eat a couple heavy flamers, but not much more. No sweat! Instead, one of the Dreads used his searchlight, so everything got to unload on the Hellions, including the Whirlwind! I dodged a bullet, though, as BCH had some unfortunate dice, and I had some good cover/FNP dice...the body count was only 2 Hellions and a wound on the Haemonculus.

As usual, I was playing late at night and quite tired. I had a hard time making and sticking to a consistent plan. The Trueborn and one Reaver squad came on lined up to shoot at one of the Ironclads. The other Reavers tripped all over each other turbo-boosting up the left flank. The Hellions jumped forward, leaving a tail for the Baron...who came on, left the Wracks, and loaded up the Hellions with their second Pain Point. I arranged them after running so that just over 1/2 would be in cover again...I was all ready to take the double-tap or the charge from some Sternguard!

My shooting killed the Ironclad nearest my edge, but nothing else thanks to Night Fight.

Now the hugest mistake...I'd forgotten about the Sternguards special ammo! They unloaded on my Hellions, leaving only FNP. Whirlwind and Predators shot at Reavers. One of the Reaver squads lost two, forcing a morale check. The Hellions lost enough to go below half and force a morale check. Yeah, guess where this is going:

BrotherCaptainHerald> - Your morale's
<Ordo Bob> - hellions
* <Ordo Bob> rolls 2d6 = 4,6
<Ordo Bob> - sigh
<Ordo Bob> - bikes
• <Ordo Bob> rolls 2d6 = 6,5

The Hellions were lost. I see why Xaereth takes all those Grisly Trophies!

So the bottom of 2. The Hellions finsih flying off the table...the fleeing Reavers fail to rally.  One Reaver squad moves up to shoot up a Predator, while the other aims for the last Ironclad.

The Ironclad was destroyed, the Predator was weapon destroyed and immobilized. Ravager opened up one of the Rhinos, the Venoms opening up on the passengers killing several. The failed Morale, but Know No Fear. Trueborn were able to kill off the Pods.

The Reavers assaulted the Predator, Shaking it.

Top of turn 3. The Librarian teleports the squad behind my Venom fleet. The Rhinos take cover behind a drop pod wreck, one of the Smoking. The mobile Predator backed away from the Reavers. His shooting wrecked a Ravager, but nothing else. In Melee the Reavers took another weapon off that Predator, leaving it with just the Left Lascannon...with no LOS to anything.

The fleeing Reavers rallied. I shuffled everything to open up on the Sternguard. A Reaver squad went after the other Predator while one squad moved to shoot at the smoked Rhino.

Rhino made his cover save. Predator died. The Librarian and all the Sternguard but 1 died, and Lysander took a wound. I again messed up, having planned to get the Reaver squad that went at the Rhinos back in to cover, but found I was too far away to make it! So I just pulled away, hoping to get a Tactical squad out in the open if nothing else.

He didn't bother getting out of the Rhino, just used the Whirlwind and Hatches to kill off all those Reavers. His dismounted Tactical squad popped a Warrior Venom. The Sternguard Sgt went to assault the passengers, but ended up being short on the Difficult Terrain roll. Lysander managed to only Immobilize a trueborn Venom in assault.

 Warrior Venoms and a Ravager moved to finish off the Whirlwind and the Tactical on foot. Trueborn in the Immo Venom sat tight, while the Ravager moved away and aimed at Lysander. Reavers when after Rhinos, popping one, allowing some Venom shots at the passengers. Lysander died under a ton of fire, and the Whirlwind was immobilized. The Tacticals near the Whirlwind again failed morale, and made a short run towards the board edge before recovering themselves. The Sternguard Sgt died from a Blaster to the face.

He's lost a lot here, but I can bleed kill points badly if I'm not careful. He tried to make the best of it. The Wrack Venom was destroyed. Whirlwind and Rhino/Tactical fired on the Wracks, killing a Wrack, despite me Going to Ground. Tacticals near the Whirlwind fired at my Warriors in the crater, killing one.

Bottom of 5, and time to close the deal. Venoms repositioned to get shots on his Tactical near the Whirlwind. Reavers moved to get the last Rhino. Two Tacticals were left near the Whirlwind, and 5 from the other dead Rhino. His surviving Rhino was only Shaken and Immobilized. The Whirlwind shrugged off Lance fire.

We rolled, and the game went on to 6. One tactical squad moved towards the Trueborn Venom. The small one near Whirlwind moved out of cover to get melta shot on a Venom. His last full Tactical squad got out to deal with Reavers in the Forest.

The Trueborn Venom was Stunned. a Warrior Venom was Exploded, and they were pinned. Whirlwind fire on the other dismounted Warriors squad caused them to lose 2 and fail Morale, fleeing off the table. The Reavers lost in assault, fleeing off the table.

We should have just called it here, but was just kind of going through the motions. Trueborn all dismounted to get good no-cover shots on the warrior squad. Reavers finished off the Rhino. The last of the Tacticals near the Whirlwind died, though it took Ravager fire to do it. I couldn't quite finish off the Tactical squad, as after the first volley they got cover.

 
As horrible as it started out, I managed a 12-6 win...but it was an ugly one! Really, I had none of the "finesse" I've preached about...I just flew around and shot stuff. I really did miss the Incubi there at the end when I needed to kill a bunch of MEQ on foot, but without the Trueborn I might not have been able to kill as many vehicles as I did. I'll definitely have to use this list a bit more to see if it's worth the expense of two more Venoms...I sure do like my Incubi!
 
Thanks for the great game, Brother Captain Herald!