September Event Game #3: Dark Eldar & Eldar vs Blood Angels & Necrons 1850pts

This month's event at Millennium Games was the first to jump up to 1850pts since the release of 6th edition.  It brought in 17 players who have been itching to play with more points.  I just finished assembling the models for my DaBoyz GT army (also 1850pts), so this would be my first competitive run with the army.  I won't have the luxury of changing the list before the GT, so I'm going to need as much practice as possible.



My third opponent of the day was Garrett who tabled me with a similar army back in July.

Garrett's List (approx):
Librarian + unleash rage, sword
Furioso + blood talons
Assault Squad x10 + fist, melta x2, rhino
Assault Squad x10 + sword, plasma x2, rhino
Assault squad x6 + axe, melta, rhino (Libby here)
Stormraven
Overlord + scythe, scarabs, phase shifter, command barge
Lance-tek
Warriors x9 + ghost ark (lance-tek here)
Wraiths x3 + whips x3
Annihilation Barge

My List:
Lady Malys
Baron Sathonyx
Maugan Ra
Grotesques x8 + liquifier, aberration, venom blade (Malys here)
Kabalite Warriors x15 + blaster, splinter cannon, sybarite, venom blade
Wyches x10 + shardnet, hekatrix, agonizer
Rangers x5
Beastmasters x5 - 12 khymerae, 2 razorwings, clawed fiend (Baron & Maugan here)
War Walkers x3 + scatter lasers x6
Razorwing Jetfighter
Aegis Defense Line + icarus lascannon

The mission was Purge the Alien and Dawn of War deployment.  Garrett's warlord trait was "reroll reserves" and mine was "-1 reserves to opponent".  I got to deploy first.

Here's my deployment before redeploy and scout moves.  I put both Maugan and the Baron with the beasts because I know his army is assault heavy and I'm hoping the fearless/hit-and-run combo will pay off.   Rangers are outflanking.

Garrett deploys fairly spread out.  On the left is the annihilation barge and melta squad.  In the middle is the command barge, ghost ark, and wraiths.  Plasma squad and libby's squad are on the right with the furioso on the reserved stormraven.  The above pic also shows my army after redeploy and scouting.  Garrett opts not to seize.

I move everything up to my aegis which was 6" from my DZ.  War walkers claim first blood by torrenting down the lead rhino holding the plasma squad.  The rest of my shooting wiffs or bounces off saves.

The necrons move up and blood angels hang back a bit.  I lose a couple beasts from shooting, but 3+ cover with stealth behind the aegis pays off.

End of turn 1: DE 2vp, BA 0vp

My rangers arrive but not the razorwing.

Grotesques and beasts advance, but not too far.  I know I can out shoot him so I want him to come to me.  War walkers drop 4 marines from the disembarked unit including both plasma guns.  Maugan explodes the command barge with a rend.  Warriors drop one wraith.

The melta team and annihilation barge come up the flank.

The stormraven arrives.  Maugan takes the interceptor shot (x2 with fast shot) and gets one pen which he jinks off.  The libby's unit pulls across the back edge to go after rangers.

The wraiths jump up and the overlord joins them.  The annihilation barge kills a beast or two.  The stormraven fires snap shots and strips a hull point from a walker.  The wraiths and overlord assault.  I put a wound on each wraith, take a couple in return, and hit-and-run 13" towards the half strength disembarked marines.

End of turn 2: DE 3vp, BA 0vp

My flyer arrives.

Beasts line up to multi-assault marines and the ghost ark.

Warriors shoot down the last 2 wraiths.  War walkers fail to damage the stormraven after 2 more successful jinks.   Beasts assault the marines and ghost ark.  Maugan explodes the ghost ark and takes out 2 warriors.  The a few marines die and I lose a couple more beasts.

The stormraven switches to hover and drops off the furioso.

The melta squad, annihilation barge, and necrons start to head for my lines.

The 6 man unit disembarks (libby stays on the rhino).  I lose all the rangers to pistol shots.  A couple warriors go down to tesla and gauss shots.  The stormraven strips 1 hp from my flyer, but I jink off the rest o the damage.  The furioso assaults the grotesques, scores 14 wounds (!) and sweeps the unit.  The beasts kill the rest of the marines except the sarge, and hit-and-run towards the embarked libby.  The overlord assaults warriors, takes 1 wound from shooting and 2 in assault, but stands back up at the end.  We played EL wrong the whole game and counted the overlord as locked in assault when he stood back up after assault.

End of turn 3:  DE 5vp, BA 4vp

I send the beasts after his warlord, rhino, and small unit.  The razorwing flies off the table since it's evading.

Wyches go after the furioso.  Shooting strips 1 hp from the stormraven.  Beasts multi-assault the marines and rhino, wrecking the rhino and killing 4 marines.  Wyches throw a haywire grenade and miss, then assault the furioso and only get 1 glance with haywire grenades.  Luckily I only lose 2 wyches after dodges and we lock.

Combat with the overlord continues.  I knock him down again and he stands up for the second time.  Again, we played it wrong and counted him as reanimating into combat.

He continues to sweep across my front side.

The stormraven flies up.  His last rhino goes flat out towards the wyches.

The libby crosses the wreck to try and escape the beasts.  The lascannon turret on the stormraven knocks over a walker and I lose another hp from the necrons.  Wyches wreck the furioso with haywire grenades.  Beasts finish off the unit of marines they were fighting.

End of turn 4: DE 8vp, BA 4vp

I bring my flyer back on.

Beasts surround the libby and go in for the kill, which Maugan claims for himself (warlord + linebreaker).  War walkers wreck the last rhino.  Wyches decide to assault the lone sarge that my beasts left behind, I lose combat and flee!  I knock down the overlord again and he stands up for a 3rd time in a row!

We're running out of time.  Looking at what's left and Garrett's targets, we decide he'll probably get the wyches, warriors, razorwing, and walkers.

The game ends at the end of turn 5: DE 11vp, BA 9vp

Another great, close game!  Garrett can really pull out some surprising damage with his army.  In the end, my fearless beasts with hit-and-run were just causing too much damage and sheltering 3 of my vp's.  Losing my grotesques and warlord to his furioso was sad, but I had a large enough headstart thanks to first blood that it didn't matter much.  We played his overlord wrong, but standing up out of combat would have only helped me more.  I made sure to stop the command barge which is what he really hurt me with last time we faced off.  Chariots are just too good to ignore now with impact hits and the ability to leave combat.  Overall, a great and very enjoyable game.

I finished 2-0-1, took 3rd overall out of 17 players, and earned some chips to put towards whatever project I tackle next.

For more coverage of the same event, you can find Calypso's game #3 on Purple Reign.

Thanks for following along.  Now it's back to the painting grind until next month's event.