Batrep: Dark Eldar & Eldar vs Guard

My game this week was against Doug who I haven't played in nearly 2 years.  He brought out some IG to face the DE I've been working on.




His list:
Lord Commissar (warlord - stealth and MTC (ruins)
Psyker Battle Squad + chimera
Marbo
Vets + 3 plasma guns
PCS + 2 flamers
Platoon - 30 bodies without any upgrades
Valkyrie (vets here)
Hellhound + hvy flamer
Medusas x2 + hvy bolters
Leman Russ Punishers x2 + 3 hvy bolters each
Manticore
Aegis Defense Line + quad gun

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

Well, this was going to be a tough match for my list.  The medusas, manticore, valk, and PBS can all drop large blasts.  The punisher squadron puts out 58 shots per turn.  A few flamers and plasmas to flavor and Marbo for disruption makes this a very potent list.  We rolled The Emperor's Will for a mission and Dawn of War for deployment.

I got to set up my fortification first.  I decided to try a figure eight formation to give me layers of cover from the imminent manticore bombardment.

Doug sets his up directly across from mine and we start rolling for terrain density.

I let Doug place first and he chooses a ruin with no openings on the ground floor to block my icarus.  We take turns with me placing mostly BLoS and ruins and him placing low profile stuff.  Doug gets stealth (ruins) and MTC (ruins) for his warlord trait.  I get acute senses on outflankers.  Doug wins the roll off and takes first turn.  I believe this is the first time I've ever had to go second with this army.  Night fight would also be in effect turn 1.

Top left is the hellhound.  Right of that is the PBS and medusas.  He blobs 20 with the lord commissar on the quad gun.  The PCS is out front with flamers and punishers.  Manticore and another 10 bodies are behind the ADL.  His objective is 6" from his board edge under his ADL and the blob.  Marbo is hiding somewhere and the vets on the valk are reserved.

I can't make up my mind about special characters since fearless and psychic immunity will be so key.  I decide to put the baron with the beasts on the icarus for now.  He has 35 scoring bodies on 1 objective so I need to play aggressive if I want a chance at denying it.

When setting up terrain, I chose a huge ruin for the opposite flank intending to hide my objective in the bottom corner which also has no windows.  I put Maugan in a window with warriors to make them fearless.  I put models on every level since barrages only hit the top floor and the hellhound would have to choose one level.  Wyches get +1 attack drugs and deploy on my board edge.  This was to provide a backup scoring unit and make them save during night fight. Grotesques are in the central ruin with Malys under an overhang also for barrage protection.  Rangers and walkers are outflanking and the flyer is reserved.

I seize the initiative!  This is possibly the best thing that could happen in this situation against all that firepower.  It also means my reserves will arrive before his so I must try and cripple the guard early.  My mysterious objective is a Grav Field Generator (1/2 assault range).  Beasts and grotesques advance.  The Baron also runs under the balcony of the ruin with no windows so he's safe from frontal and barrage fire.  Maugan pegs the hellhound but fails to cause damage.

The guard discover their mysterious objective is a Shatterfield (+1 cover save).  The hellhound moves up to the building on the flank which also has no windows.  Everything else shifts right and lines up on the beasts.
  

The PBS were able to get into range and hit the beasts with weaken resolve.  The medusas bomb the beasts and I fail 4/4 invulns on khymerae!  The manticore bombs them and I lose more and get pinned.  Punishers let it rip and kill every beast in sight with many wounds left and lost.  The beasts fail their morale and fall back to within 2" of my edge.  If hadn't seized, that would have been first blood.

End of turn 1: DE 3vp, IG 3vp (currently held objectives)

The walkers arrive and after much debate with the warlord reroll, I get the right flank and decide to target the manticore for first blood.

The beasts rally and consolidate behind my ADL.  The jetfighter arrives and I use the ruin I placed next to his quad gun to screen it.  I don't like feeding the meatgrinder but I have to at least try for his objective so the grotesques advance also.

The lord commissar on the quad gun opts to intercept the walkers causing 2 glances but I pass both saves from the manticore in between.  The walkers are able to strip exactly 3 hull points and wreck the manticore for first blood.  Maugan tries to open up the PBS's chimera, but only immobilizes it.  The razorwing opens up on the medusa squadron and am able to wreck one with side shots and str6 missiles.  I run the Baron onto the icarus in case any reserves arrive.

Both Marbo and the valk fail to arrive.

Everything else lines up on the grotesques.  I lose about half of the squad to the torrent of fire and blasts.  The PBS tries to weaken the wyches but perils on 6's and 2 go down.  Their chimera drops 3 wyches.  The flank unit of 10 guardsmen assaults the walkers.  I knock out 2 with overwatch and punt 1 more in assault.  They glance once with frag grenades and we lock.

End of turn 2: DE 4vp, IG 3vp

My rangers arrive on the left flank next to the BLoS building that's hiding the hellhound.  They actually glance it twice but he passes both cover saves.  I have to keep the pressure on his objective so I continue to push the grots forward, but only get 3" through cover.

The jetfighter scoots up 18".  Wyches patch coherency and advance as a late game linebreaker.  Maugan explodes the chimera killing 2 more psykers and pinning the unit.  The razorwing takes out another 2 psykers with lances and splinters.

Walkers are able to punt another guardsmen but they pass morale and keep me locked.  Grots fail their assault distance on the punishers.

Marbo arrives and the Baron goes for the headshot with the icarus, but he passes his cover save.

The valk arrives and zooms right up to my razorwing.  The lascannon explodes my flyer.

My grots  take a pounding from punishers, guardsmen, and the medusa.  I'm left with only the aberration and Malys (thanks to look-out-sir).  The hellhound burns down 4 of my rangers.

End of turn 3: DE 4vp, IG 3vp

I send the beasts up to go after the russes.

I pull Malys and her buddy back to deal with Marbo.

Wyches push up but are getting hung up with bad terrain rolls.  My last ranger scoots around the corner of the BLoS building on the left flank.  Maugan shoots down the last 4 psykers by ignoring cover and rerolling wounds with crack shot.

Beasts assault the punishers.  The baron actually gets 2 pens at init6 and explodes the closest russ putting 3 wounds on the clawed fiend.  The second pen stuns the second russ and the rest of the squad cannot move enough to swing.  The walkers take another glance but run off the guardsmen they were fighting.

The PCS with flamers lines up on the beasts.

The valk pivots and zooms into my DZ.

The hellhound comes around and burns down 4 wyches.  The PCS and blob shoot down the beasts leaving only the Baron (who passed about 7 shadow field saves) and one beastmaster. 

End of turn 4: DE 4vp, IG 3vp

I bring the wyches up to assault the hellhound.  I forgot that I can throw them now too.  Maugan blows off the turret.

My last ranger runs around the BLoS building and makes a break for linebreaker.

The walkers and Baron move on the blob.  Shockingly, they are only able to kill 2 men thanks to the +1 cover save on the ADL from his objective.  I assault with the walkers first to take the overwatch and the quad gun fails to hit.  Also shockingly, the Baron fails his assault with a 3, then a 2 with fleet reroll.

The walkers kick a couple guardsmen and I lose one to frag grenades.  The wyches assault the (2hp left) hellhound and only glance once with haywires.

The hellhound backs up and burns down the wyches.

The PCS and punisher line up on the Baron and his shadowfield eventually gives out.

The valk goes into hover mode and dumps out the vets who target my aberration who passes every cover and FnP (went to ground).

The valk hovers up to Malys for some point blank shots.  Amazingly, I pass every LoS!/cover/FnP again.  The guard blob is able to glance my walkers to death with frags.

We roll for the end and the game goes on!

End of turn 5: DE 4vp, IG 4vp

Not much for me to do.  Maugan finishes off the hellhound.  My last ranger runs into the guard DZ.

The punisher and valk line up on Malys.  The aberration finally falls down but Malys only takes 1 wound after 3+ cover and 5+ FnP.

The lord commissar retakes the quad gun, puts 3 wounds on my ranger, I go to ground, and fail exactly 1 save!

End of turn 6: DE 4vp, IG 4vp

With that, my last linebreaker unit dies.  We roll and the game goes on again.  I concede the game to Doug as he will easily kill my warlord and the store is closing.

End of game: DE 4vp, IG 5vp

Well that actually turned into a really fun and close game.  Mostly due to seizing the initiative and getting a turn of movement before I got pounded.  Dice in general were pretty quirky this game.  The Baron passed easily 12 shadow field saves and my grots were doing me proud with their cover/FnP saves.  I also failed my first 6 out of 6 invulns on khymerae.  Forgetting to throw a haywire grenade could have cost me the draw as 1 more glance would have seen the hellhound destroyed in assault and I could have moved/run another linebreaker unit in.  I think I could have done better by putting Malys with the warriors, Maugan with the beasts, and the Baron with the grots.  Malys would have made the warriors immune to the PBS.  Maugan would have made the beasts fearless, and the Baron would give the grots +1 cover and much less chance to run off the table.  I could have reserved the wyches too, but I didn't want to play too passively with this list.  I think I did well with terrain placement, but I would probably just use the ADL in a solid line again.  I let the manticore intimidate me too much and didn't count on it only firing once.  As always, I appreciate my losses as they teach me how to play better. 

We have our October event coming up Saturday so I'll see if I can put what I learned to use then.  After that, I think I'm switching to GK for a lock-in the following weekend to test out a list I've been drafting for an upcoming team event.