Sunday, November 28, 2010

Adventures in Real Space III

On Sunday we did another play test this time it was Me and Cash vs Jon our other team mate using his ork army. Full lists since quite a few things were changed since last play test:

Jon's Orks:
Big Mek w/ burna, kustom force field and eavy armor x2
Ork Boyz x26-28? w/ rokkits x2 Nob w/ powerklaw & bosspole x5
Killa Kanz x9 (3x3) w/ big shootas
Deffkopta x3 (1x3)

Cash's list:
Duke Slicius
Trueborn x9 packed w/ venom carbines & splinter carbines in raider w/ flickerfield
Warriors x10 w/ blaster, sybarite w/ blast pistol in raider w/ flickerfield
Warriors x10 w/ blaster, sybarite w/ blast pistol in raider w/ flickerfield
Warriors x10 w/ blaster, sybarite w/ blast pistol in raider w/ flickerfield

My list:
Succubus w/ shardnet & impaler
Wyches x10 w/ hydra gauntlets x2, hekatrix w/ venom blade in raider w/ chain snares
Wyches x10 w/ razorflails x2, hekatrix w/ venom blade in raider w/ chain snares
Wyches x9 w/ shardnet & impaler, hekatrix w/ venom blade in raider w/ chain snares
Incubi x5 in venom w/ splinter cannon x2
Reavers x3 w/ heatlance
Reavers x3 w/ heatlance

We played with 3 objectives one in the center, one just outside deployment on our left and jon put his on our right side outside of his deployment. Jon won the roll for deployment and deployed his forces evenly across the board.

Being sneaky Dark Eldar players we decided instantly to deploy our forces near our objective on our left castling up/hiding behind a LOS blocking building. I left both my reaver units in reserve as I didn't think they would be much use in the first turn anyway. Combat drugs (thanks to the Duke) was re-roll wounds and a free pain point. Both were very useful but I picked the free pain point reasoning that it would give me a benefit both in combat and versus shooting.

Pre-Game Thoughts:
I know that Jon has playing orks for quite some time so he is a competent ork general, I on the other hand have been playing orks LONGER than jon so I knew full well the capabilities of orks and their tactics. Though I am still a novice in playing Dark Eldar (about 2-3 months in 1998 and the games now) I have always been a "close combat junkie" and wyches so i've heard do that quite well.

The plan was to zip around from building to building in our deployment zone taking dark lance pot shots from our raiders to knock out the killa kanz before they got too close. Seeing as we had absolutely no one of taking them out in close combat. Cash would use his splinter rifles to thin out the hordes to manageable levels and I would counter assault/pick on weak isolated units.

Turn 1:
Jon advances whole army a few big shootas let loose on a few raiders that could not hide sufficiently stunning one of my wych raiders. Everything on our right flank ran seeing as it had little to no hope of actually getting into the fight.

Our raiders shifted slightly and let loose against the killa kanz though many of the shots were deflected by the kustom force field 1-2 kanz went down for good along with a few boyz.

Turn 2:
One ork mob sits on our right flank objective everything else on that side of the board again makes the long trudge. The death koptas are camping around some ruins on our right deployment flank I believe they stun the same wych raider as last turn. A warrior unit raider is downed near our objective.

Both of my reavers come in, I turbo boost one killing off a deff kopta and gaining another pain token, the second reaver unit rapid fires another kopta to death. Cash unleashes his army bringing down one of the units of orks to 10 models and knocking out a further kan.

One of my wych units (hydra gauntlets) picks a fight with a unit of orks in a building, after wounds/no retreat 15 or so orks are sent to meet mork/gork in the sky in exchange for 1 wych. While both reaver units use their assault move to get behind cover or limit LOS.

Turn 3:
Most of the ork unit (barring the one sitting on an objective far right) are in range so rather shoot their rokkits/big shootas than run. The foot slogging warrior squad near our objective takes the brunt of the fire bringing them down to 5 models passing their LD test with casual ease. Killa Kan/Kopta fire kills off 2 (including the heatlance) of the jetbikes on the right flank who also passes his LD test. Another warrior unit loses its raider and decide to sell their lives dearly (under threat of death by the Duke I assume) against the horde of oncoming orks...

A lone killa kan that was near the ork unit in combat with wyches is frustrated to see he can't even get into combat due to positioning of the units. In the ongoing combat my wyches show how much of a tarpit they can be killing only a handful of orks in exchange for a casualty or two.

Deciding to break out of our initial castle Cash sends the Duke's entourage and a warrior unit along with a unit of wyches (razorflails) towards the center of our deployment. A few pot shots nets another pair killa kanz (now there are units of 1,1,2 in that order across the board) though my wych raiders are infamous across the stars for missing or failing to damage ANY kanz. The full 3 man reaver unit turbo boosts over a large ork unit netting a casualty or two and going into the ork back field hoping to contest an objective late in the game or be a clever distraction.

Assault sees my Incubi charging into the ork/wych combat foolishly losing 2 of their number for lack of plasma grenades but tip combat heavily in favor of the dark eldar and running down the orks. I had to make a rough decision I knew that the lone killa kan would reach one of the units and wreck them, so I made the decision to send the unit of wyches to their doom. I used their consolidate move to surround the killa kan, he would either have to assault them or go all the way around the building to avoid them. The lone bike charged into the the last kopta to no effect (forgot about the ccw/pistol this combat lasted till turn 5 anyway..).

Turn 4:
Distraction works Jon sends a near full strength mob to deal with bikes, shooting and assault barely kills off the unit. The killa kan assaults the wyches (hydra gauntlets) and deals no wounds, for the rest of the game the killa kan only manages to kill 1 wych, I pass LD test so I won't mention them again.

Pot shots ring out along the dark eldar line but few connect against the kanz, splinter rifles/cannons take a few orks out in the center line. The mob of 10 orks goes to ground ignoring most of the fire aimed at it loses an ork or two. There will be no stopping of the two ork mobs and unit of 2 killa kanz, so I decide to be proactive and go I send the unit of wyches (razorflails) after a mob in the center.

The wyches do quite well against the mob and thanks to the free combat drug pain token come out with only a casualty or two. They easily win combat by a good margin I think only about 11-15? orks were left in the mob after "no retreat".

Turn 5:
Ork shooting manages to gun down both the Duke's raider and another raider full of warriors, resulting explosion kills a few warriors but trueborn are unaffected thanks to the Duke's combat drugs. Most raiders are this point are down with only three raiders (succubus/wych unit, warrior and incubi) staying near our objective and out of harm's way.

Jon thought for a moment if he wanted to help out the squad fighting the wyches, but the temptation of eliminating the Duke was too great and he did a double charge with his large ork unit. In combat a few models on both sides died including the Big Mek that was with the ork mob, but Jon still won by two and chased off both the warriors and the Duke who rolled horribly for leadership and ran right off the board edge.

A lone Killa Kan near our objective charged a warrior unit hiding behind their wrecked raider. Thankfully it only killed 1 warrior so they passed their leadership and got ready to stall the killa kan for a turn or two. Razorflail wyches get down to work and yet again beat the orks with minimal casualties, win combat by a good measure and run down the survivors gaining them another pain token.

Cash couldn't do much with only a unit of 2 on our objective and a squad stuck in combat dealing with the killa kan I knew I had to take a few gambles. I attempt to fire a few dark lances but apparently the crew decided to take the day off and the shots did no damage what so ever. Right onto close combat I decide to throw the wyches into the unit that just killed the Duke, combat again goes in my favor mainly due to all my Hekatrix packing venom blades. Yet again no retreat kills off a handful of orks but they are still locked in combat.

Turn 6:
Final turn of the game Jon charges the mob of 10 or so orks into the surviving warrior squad on our objective easily steam rolling the warriors and move deeper into cover. The lone Killa Kan stays locked in combat with the warriors. At one point possibly last turn the jetbike killed the deff kopta and went towards the center of the board was gunned down by pistols for his bravado.

Razorflail wyches win the combat against ork mob sustaining a casualty or two (down to 3 models both razorflails and the hekatrix) and the move towards the center of the board I was still undecided of what I would do with them.

Since it was established that my raider crew are horrible shots I decided to save the day in close combat, it involved a VERY risky plan but at this point we were going to lose so I pulled ALL of my tricks out of the bag. Succubus and her wych unit (shardnet) jumped the ork unit on our objective, easily winning combat and wiping out the orks .

My razorflail wyches take a big gamble move and fleet towards Jon's ork unit in his deployment, I took a big risk needing a 4+ to make it into combat due to difficult. Rolling exactly what I needed helped and went into combat, because Jon's mob was so large only about half of the unit was able to attack. My wyches did a good number of wounds on the orks and suffered no casualties! Including "no retreat" about 9 orks had died, but the genius of my plan came after combat was resolved. Thanks to the "piling in" rule Jon's unit was forced to move off the objective and towards combat. With that the game was over turning a defeat into a hard earned tie!

Observations:
Wych Weapons- I originally thought I would love the razorflail due to it's re-rolling hits AND wounds but for some reason every time I used them they underperformed. Maybe it was just bad luck but the hydra gauntlets did spectacular (shame about tying up a killa kan all game though..). The Shardnets made a nob down to 1 attack which he missed against the succubus I was pretty worried going into that fight but it needed to be done.

Venom Blades- In a 1,000 point games these have been pretty ace, sure everyone clamors for the agonizer since it can ignore saves and "feel no pain". But at only 5 points these have been indispensable to my army.

Reavers- Though they didn't do anything spectacular I still love these guys, the ability to turbo boost 36" followed by 6" in the assault phase to hide behind cover or in it makes these guys VERY dangerous. The only problem I had in this game is that I didn't have a safe place in the sea of green to land so I hesitated using these guys aggressively.

Incubi- WS5 rocks! Where as Wyches are the anvil in close combat being able to tarpit just about anything, the incubi are definitely the hammer. Though I wish I had the points to at least give them a squad leader I am stretching my points thin across the army as is. The venom was slightly impressive pumping out 12 shots a lot of fire does get directed at it. I learned WHY plasma grenades are so important in the games that I play they usually end up assaulting something in cover an losing a guy or two.

Other than that I think the playtest went VERY well from what I had originally expected, I knew that orks would give Dark Eldar a bit of a tough time due to the lack of template weapons. Sure you can thin down a few ork mobs but you really need a counter assault if you want your firing line to stay intact. My wyches did amazing even needing 5+s to wound, again "power from pain" saved so many wyches from an untimely demise.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Adventures in real space II

Our second test game for our Dark Eldar was against:

Demon Prince of Slannesh w/ lash of submission and wings x2
Plague Marines 4x7? w/ assorted plasma/melta throughout squads champs w/ power fist
Obliterators 2x3
Khorne Berzekers x10? champ w/ power fist in land raider

Jon's list remained largely the same I believe he switched a raider unit for wracks in a raider and mandrakes being replaced with a truborn double splinter cannon unit possibly a venom in the mix.

My list just changed three kymeras for two voidwing flocks and haywire grenades for two wych units and archon gets them also.

again the cronos, reavers and beasts stay in reserve though we win the roll for deployment our opponent manages to seize the initiative.

quick overview:
4/6 Obliterators met their end in the first turn and after that become a non issue ineffectually gunning for raiders and either doing superficial damage or stunning them. But it wasn't before they managed to down a raider and scare off the wyches inside on the first turn.

Double lash princes supported each other by making units fall into dog pile traps, but were being slowly killed off by a torrent of dark lance/splinter cannon fire.

Grand melee between two units of plague marines try and take out a unit of wyches before some help arrives. This combat lasted 6-8 rounds of assault with no clear winner till the store closed and we rolled just to see what "would of happened". At which point the wyches lost due to lack of hitting power.

Game ended due to store closing around turn 5, both armies were pretty beat up at this point though my beasts NEVER came in from reserve. We didn't roll for a mission but we agreed if it was KP the opponent would of won, quarters would of been close and VP would of been a toss up.

Observations:
-Wyches are pretty solid in combat they can tarpit just about anything not packing powered weapons. If it wasn't for toughness 5 and feel no pain even against regular MEQs they would of done a great job.

-Shardnet & Impaler- have to give this a lot of credit, at first glance I didn't think it would be as useful as razor flails but I was wrong. Denying the opponent extra attacks adds to survivability of everyone in the unit, I can imagine adding a phantasm grenade launcher for defensive grenades. Park them in cover and watch even an ork charge falter till reinforcements come.

-Webway- though I can see great potential for this, in such small point lists I cannot afford to leave my team mate down 500+ points in the first two turns of the game so I will be dropping this wargear and re doing my list.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Adventures in real space.

Sorry that I have been away for quite some time but between being laid off and Fallout: New Vegas all my "free" time turned into endless hours in front of my xbox instead of my computer/miniatures/etc. Despite this me and the crew here on Wasted Warrior were tempted by the new Dark Eldar coming out thought up of a plan. In April as you may (or not) know is Adepticon one of the bigger GW events, a few years back a few of us went as part of the team tournament and despite sleep deprivation we had TONS of fun.

Well fast forward a few years and a total redesign of the Dark Eldar line had everyone excited, so we raised the banner and decided that we should get out of retirement and participate. The road is paved with hard work, planning and may even call for an occasional update or two! After looking at the amazing models we went about creating our lists/theme and so forth.

Though we are still hammering down our "theme" and army lists are rough plan is to bring four Dark Eldar armies, two being part of a larger Kabal while one is a wych cult (mine) and the last a haemonculus cult. We are aiming for a desert/sand world theme, after all one look at the raiders and they scream Jabba the Hutt's desert skiffs!

Currently we are testing out our proposed lists before we make any final purchases, the funny thing about that is that all of the team members have had little to no experience with Dark Eldar. Aside from myself who played Dark Eldar when they first came out (1998 or so) I quickly sold them thinking that I would need to buy tons of raiders to make them effective. As it so happens I picked up Orks right after and it has been an obsession ever since.. but what can you say?

Our first test run of lists was me teamed up with Jon, though the game only got half way (we faced "That Guy") we did learn more of the rules and their subtle interactions than before. Im short we faced:

Eldrad
Avatar
Warp Spiders x6 w/ exarch
Fire Dragons x10 w/ exarch in wave serpent w/ scatter lasers
Dire Avengers x10 w/ exarch in wave serpent w/ tl bright lances
Dire Avengers x10 w/ exarch in wave serpent w/ tl bright lances
Dark Reapers x5 w/ exarch
Wraithlord w/ bright lance
Vibro Cannons x3

vs

Jon:
Haemonculus w/ ID gauntlet
Mandrakes x7 w/ champ
*Warriors x9 w/ splinter cannon and champ in raider w/ chain snares
*Warriors x10 w/ splinter cannon and champ in raider w/ chain snares
*Warriors x10 w/ splinter cannon and champ in raider w/ chain snares
Ravager x2 w/ night and flicker fields

*the warriors could have had blasters I don't recall them being used much/at all.

Myself:
Archon w/ venom blade, combat drugs, clone field and webway portal
Wych x7 w/ razorflail and champ w/ venom blade in raider
Wych x7 w/ razorflail and champ w/ venom blade in raider
Wych x8 w/ shardnet and champ w/ venom blade in raider
Beastmaster x2 Khymera x8
Reavers x6 w/ heat lance x2 and champ
Cronos w/ soul siphon

Webway: Mandrakes, Cronos, Reavers and Kymera
Combat Drugs = +1 WS

The first turn and a half we were getting hammered as we failed ALL of our reserves rolls, the Eldar player getting first also didn't help as just about all of his weapons could down Raiders. Once our reserves came in though the game started to turn very quickly, I have to admit we were plagued with some horrible case of bad luck early on. But just as we managed to turn the corner the store was about to close so we called it a tie, constant rules disputes and unclear rules (thanks GW) slowed down the game.

Observations:
-Chain Snares rock I don't care what people say about them, Jon's weaponless raider ran over countless Eldar unlucky enough to be caught outside of their transports.

-Open topped isn't so bad! We learned that wrecked/destroyed vehicles subtract 1 from the strength of getting wounded. Now this may be old news to most people but coming from people that have never used open topped vehicles in the past or 5th ed in general thats BIG news for transports that have as much armor as a paper mache statue. On top of that fact it just so happened that every +1 added to roll for damage turned out better than the original result.

-Combat Drugs/+1WS just about anything you roll on the combat drugs table isn't bad, at first I was bummed I didn't get +1 str or attack but in retrospect. Hitting enemies on 3+ (most times) isn't that bad and actually helped me greatly in combat.

-Power from Pain is a great "free" ability given to Dark Eldar with the first pain point giving units what they really need some staying power on the field.

-Cronos was very nifty to have around between having a MEQ cutting flame template and bouncing around pain tokens it seems solid enough via webway.