As ZacharPaladin had brought his Tyranids, and had already had a game with them, he decided that he wanted to use Dark Eldar in the next game. I agreed with this as I wanted a chance to finally end my loosing streak against the Evil Space Elf Ninjas. The only snag with this is that he didn't have any of his Dark Eldar with him, and so he ended up proxying his Tyranids as Dark Eldar. This was odd as a Trygon represented the Razorwing, and Raiders and Ravagers were in fact Carnifexes (or Carnifie, whatever you choose). But enough with this confusing drivell around weird and wonderful proxies! On with the Batrep!
My list can be seen in the previous post, but I shall re-post it here so that you don't have to keep jumping around the blog. So here it is:
HQ:
Ghazghkull Thraka
Warboss: 'Eavy Armour, Power Klaw, Bosspole, Kombi-Shoota/Skorcha, Cybork Body.
Elites:
10 Lootas
10 Lootas
Troops:
10 Nobz – Inc: Cybork Bodies, 10 sets of 'Eavy Armour, 2 Power Klaws, 1 Kombi-Shoota/Rokkit, 6 Big Choppas and a Painboy. In a Trukk with Armour Plates, Red Paint Job and Reinforced Ram.
10 Nobz – Inc: Cybork Bodies, 10 sets of 'Eavy Armour, 3 Power Klaws, 1 Kombi-Shoota/Rokkit, 1 Kombi-Shoota/Skorcha, 4 Big Choppas and a Painboy. In a Trukk with Armour Plates, Red Paint Job and Reinforced Ram.
30 Shoota Boyz: Nob
1,800 Points.
ZacharPaladin was using a similar list to what he normally uses. The exception being that he had dropped his favoured court of the Archon and a few wyches, for Baron Sathonyx and some Hellions, as well as a Ravager. A copy of his full list can be found below:
HQ:
Baron Sathonyx.
Haemonculus: Liquifier Gun, Power Weapon.
Haemonculus: Liquifier Gun, Power Weapon, Shattershard.
Haemonculus: Liquifier Gun.
Elites:
5 Incubi: Venom: Splinter Cannon.
4 Grotesques: Liquifier Gun: Raider.
Troops:
10 Kabalite Warriors: Shredder, Dark Lance.
10 Kabalite Warriors: Shredder.
10 Wyches: Hekatrix: Power Weapon: Raider.
10 Wyches: Hekatrix: Power Weapon: Raider.
7 Wracks: Acothyst.
10 Hellions: Helliarch: Agoniser.
Heavy Support:
Ravager: Flickerfield.
Razorwing Jetfighter: Flickerfield.
For the game itself we decided to shake things up a bit in terms of deployment. The table would be divided into 2 halves (as it would in Dawn of War), and then one player would deploy whatever they wanted into their side of the table. This would be to represent either the Dark Eldar swooping down upon the Orks in a raid, or the Orks charging headlong into the Dark Eldar in a counter attack. Simply, it was Dawn of War, but there was no Night fighting, and you could deploy whatever you wanted.
Luckily for me, I won the roll off, so I chose my side of the board, and set about deploying my entire army. This was good for me as it gave me a lot more freedom as to where to put my Lootas. ZacharPaladin then proceeded to deploy, and you can see a mediocre picture of how this went out below (to avoid confusion (the Necron Warriors are Lootas):
So, I deployed one of my Loota squads on the hill, and used the shoota boyz to provide cover for them in case the initiative was stolen. The other loota squad was placed in the Sanctum Imperialis on the right. Finally, my 2 Trukks full of Nobz were placed as close to the board centre as possible with one facing right (the standard Warboss and his lads), and the other one facing left. The one facing right was being used as cover for the other in case the initiative was stolen, as I valued Ghazghkull more than I did the standard Warboss.
On ZacharPaladin's left flank he deployed his Razorwing (Trygon), his Hellions with Baron Sathonyx (Genestealers), and his 1 squad of Kabalites (Termagants) and the Wracks (the Termagants that are sprayed black). On his right, the Ravager (the big, red, more easily visible Carnifex), his remaining Kabalites squad (Termagants), his Incubi in their Venom (the big red Carnifex hiding somewhat) and the 2 squads of wyches and the Grotesques in their Raiders(the remaining Carnifexes/Carnifie).
I should also mention that the game was sieze ground with 5 objectives, and these are represented by: The Shokk Attack Gun (bottom left of the picture), the Squig (centre), the Shadowseer (in the Dark Eldar controlled ruins), a Chaos artifact (not visible, behind the wrecked Trukk) and a Nurgly Chaos Icon (next to the wrecked looted wagon).
So we started the game. ZacharPaladin failed to sieze the initiative, and then rolled a 6 for combat drugs, meaning that every unit with combat drugs in his army started with 1 pain token, meaning that they all had feel no pain. Glorious. And so, we commenced.
End of Ork Turn 1:
So, as there was not as much of a need fo my shoota boyz to cover my Lootas any more I started shuffling them towards the next objective so that they could cover that was well as the one that they already had (such is the advantage of a 30 man troop unit). The standard Warboss Trukk headed for cover behind the looted wagon while Ghazghkull did the same behind the wrecked Trukk.
The shooting phase was ok from the Ork perspective. The lootas in the Sanctum shot down the Razorwing and the other loota squad ripped a Dark Lance off the ravager. Also, the big shoota off Ghazzy's Trukk managed to account for the death of a single Dark Eldar Kabalite Warrior in the ruins.
However, this turn the shooting phase belonged to the Dark Eldar. After moving the 3 Raiders towards Ghazzy's Trukk, the Incubi Raider towards the Shoota Boyz, the Ravager nearer to the centre of the board and the Hellions at the Warbosses Trukk, ZacharPaladin proceeded to let rip.
A total of 7 Shoota Boyz, Ghazghkull's Trukk and 5 of his Nobz (including a Power Klaw) fell to the barrage. Worse, Ghazzy proceeded to break and start running, but luckily, he ran enough to be able to rally again later. The final casualties of the turn were, rather unsurprisingly, in the assault phase. The Hellions managed to explode the Trukk, but one of their number was killed in the ensuing explosion.
Although both sides had suffered casualties this match up was by no means over yet, as neither army was clearly on top due to the lack of Alpha Strike that these armies possess. But the Orks pulled themselves back up from the slogging that they had taken the previous turn. Ghazghkull and his remaining Nobz rallied, and moved in towards the cluster of Raiders ready for a multi-assault. Meanwhile, the shoota boyz continued to shuffle towards the squig objective.
End of Ork Turn 2 Movement Phase:
The Orks then kept pushing with their offensive. The squad of Lootas on the hill opened up the Incubi's Venom, getting revenge for the losses that it had inflicted upon the shoota boyz in the previous turn. The ensuing explosion then proceeded to kill a single Incubi but failed to pin the squad. The remaining Loota squad then pulverised the Ravager, finishing it off and removing possibly the last great ranged threat in the Dark Eldar force.
The combat phase remained, in my opinion, the phase which included the most carnage. Ghazghkull and his Nobz smashed apart 2 Raiders in a multi-assault, and out spilled one of the wyche squads and the Grotesque squad. The other Nobz squad then took a single wound from the Hellions, but hit back with fury. The Nobz themselves proceeded to take apart the Hellions, while the Warboss punched Baron Sathonyx in the face, who proceeded to fail his 2+ Invulnerable and was killed instantly due to the S10 Power Klaw.
With the majority of their shooting gone, the Dark Eldar began to throw every Close Combat unit they had at the Nobz squads. The Raider full of Wyches moved menacingly towards the Nobz squad which had killed the Baron, as the Incubi did the same to Ghazghkull, while the spilled Wyches and the Grotesques charged into combat with him, and the Wracks into the Warbosses squad.
End of Dark Eldar Turn 2 Shooting Phase:
This ended in carnage. Ghazghkull's Nobz started to suffer casualties at the hands of the wyches and their 4++ in Close Combat was a real pain in the arse, as they tarpitted better than an actual tarpit. However, for this turn this may have been because the attentions of my Nobz were mainly elsewhere, as the Power Klaws whiffed at the Grotesques, leaving Ghazghkull to show them how it was done as he punched 4 of them to death, while the Haemonculus fell to big choppas. The Wyches still suffered a single casualty however, but everyone held and remained locked in.
The normal Warboss had better luck, bashing apart the Wracks and rolling yet another 6 for consolidation (I maintain that my rolling is pretty good normally), moving towards the Trukk to try and get hold of a further objective.
The only movement that took place in the Ork turn was that of the Nobz squad moving towards the objective. Other than that the Lootas took shots at the Kabalites, killing several and sending them running, while the other squad shot at the remaining Raider, but only managed to take it's gun off. The Wyches and the Nobz remained locked in and we moved to Dark Eldar turn 3.
ZacharPaladin continued to pile in his troops. The Raider disgorged its Wyches into the Nobz squad, while the Incubi charged Ghazghkull. On another note, the Kabalites rallied.
The Warboss squad held the Wyches, but were again slowly being whittled down. The same was happening in Ghazghkull's combat, as the Incubi whiffed and failed to do any damage.
Ork turn 4 was really a continuation of the combats. The only exception being that the Lootas in the Sanctum exploded the remaining Raider, whereas the other Lootas took shots at the newly rallied Kabalites, who probably wished that they had kept on running as the entire squad was scythed down.
In the Assault phase, the Incubi were punched to death by the nearby Nobz, while the remainder carried on their fight against the Wyches. This was a similar story in the other combat, as it ground on. This story carried on in Dark Eldar turn 4, and not until turn 5 did we see a break-through. This came in 2 places at once. The Warbosses Nobz finally finished off the Wyches and rolled an unfortunate 3 for consolidation, but it was enough to put them on the objective. Also, the other squad of Wyches, who had thus far killed all of Ghazghkull's Nobz, proceeded to break Ghazghkull, but unfortunately, due to some poor rolling, were unable to sweeping advance him.
However, as we proceeded to move into ZacharPaladin's 5th turn, the Wyches caught up with him, and killed him. Although this did leave them in a vulnerable position, as they were now directly infront of the large squad of shoota boyz, and unfortunately for them, the game carried on.
Top of Turn 6:
This was esssentially the mopping up phase, the Shoota boyz cleared up the Wyches from range, with no need to engage them in Close Quarters, while the Lootas cut down the remaining Kabalite Warriors in the ruins, earning a tabling for Rampage.
Although the result looked like a strong victory, I believe that this did not accurately reflect the game, it was closely contested for the most part and my congratulations go out to ZacharPaladin on yet another well fought and enjoyable game.
Sorry this has been so long, and sorry that I have wasted so much of your time by dragging you through what appears to be 7 and ½ pages of battle report. Maybe I should just do a video next time, hopefully it will be better received than the last video battle report that UnOrthodoxMinis did.
Thanks for Reading!
