Dark Eldar

[Prophecy]

Bottom Line Up Front (or, TL;DR): My Wolves beat the Dark Eldar, Bjorn didn't die, Russ is proud and drinks are on me.

 

 

 

Whoo boy...

 

Fighting the dark lance spam with my beloved pups? Not an easy fight.

 

2000 points, pitched battle, seize ground (5 objectives, he got to place three). Table had a lot of forest, with a big ruins (4+ cover save, doesn't block LOS) with a lake surrounding it in the dead center. Frustrating as it was, the cover saves from that is what gave me a fighting chance against his lance spam (OF DOOM!).

 

His side

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|__x__________|

|____x_____x__|

|_____________| (sorry for fail diagram)

|_____________|

|__x_______x__| x=objective

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my side

 

He had As%@#&@ Vect (seriously, I have no idea what his name actually is)

Raider 1: The homunculus HQ with a normal squad of Grotesques

Raider 2: 6 Warriors (Lance on vehicle, lance+blaster on the troops)

Raider 3: 6 Warriors (Lance on vehicle, lance+blaster on the troops)

Raider 4: 6 Warriors (Lance on vehicle, lance+blaster on the troops)

Raider 5: 6 Warriors (Lance on vehicle, lance+blaster on the troops)

Raider 6: 6 Warriors (Lance on vehicle, lance+blaster on the troops)

Raider 7: 6 Warriors (Lance on vehicle, lance+blaster on the troops)

Ravager 1: 3 DL

Ravager 2: 3 DL

Ravager 3: 3 DL

2 Squads of three jetbikes with 2 dark lances per squad

 

ow. Every vehicle except Vect had the night shield (possibly the best 20 points in the game)

 

I had (a crappy list that was thrown together in ten minutes based on what I had handy):

 

Canis

Bjorn

RP (LL + MH)

Regular vanilla dread

Iron Priest Cav + cyberwolves

2 grey hunter squads (8 man) with melta + standard + mark + basic rhino + termie WG

1 grey hunter squad (10 man) with 2x plasma and termie WG

3 TWC (TH, SS, basic)

6 Long Fangs (3 ML, 2 HB)+CML Termie WG

LR Crusader (2 PA wolf guard with no upgrades rode in here. worst waste of 250 points ever)

 

I was boned to start off, with 5 objectives I knew I was hurting. He was loaded up with troops and lances and he started off with 3 on his side. I had few troops and was going to be fighting an uphill battle.

 

He pretty much lined his reapers and ravagers up across the field (honestly, there wasn't much room left on the table) with nothing in reserve. Vect and the Homunculai in the center and on a hill with the jetbikes on his far left (best line of advance). Two ravagers were on the left with one on the right. I got to go second. I considered keeping everything in reserve, but there just wasn't really a reason. My footslogging GH pack and rune priest went on my first objective (front left), while the two rhinos hid behind the Crusader and my dreads near the second (front right). Long Fangs with the CML went on the far left in a forest (within 2 inches of the edge, so they could shoot out). I had Canis and the Cav on the left near my Fangs, and my Iron Priest on the right near the dreads.

 

Sadly, I wasn't documenting, so I'll do my best to explain what happened.

 

His First turn: HOLYDARKLANCESPAM

He wrecks my Crusader and five of my long fangs (one ML and the Termie with the Cyclone is left. Should gone to ground).

Knocks a wolf off my Iron Priest.

Immobilizes Bjorn (right behind the Land Raider wreck where he struggles to get shots off the entire game).

 

My First Turn:

IP goes up (should have tried to fix Bjorn)

TWC+Canis go up. (between them and the Iron Priest, I was hoping to find an avenue in where I could assault Vect, since shooting him is kind of pointless with what I had)

Both Rhinos race towards the objective in the center-ish.

I stun and/or shake two ravagers between the dreads and the long fangs.

Iron Priest assaults the jetbikes (combat drugs: always go first). They kill off the wolves, the IP singlehandedly kills all three bikes. Score three for Ad Mech. (I love this unit so much)

 

His Second Turn:

Immobilizes first rhino

Stuns second.

Kills the other Long Fang (WG stays)

Puts a wound on one Cav guy (the SS one. fail roll is fail)

Lots of crappy rolls.

Assaults the Iron Priest with his OTHER jetbike. They all die. Priest lives. Go Priest go.

 

My Second Turn:

Second Rhino speeds towards objective. Sits about two inches back from it.

Squad bails out of immob rhino, consolidates backwards towards my right rear objective.

Immob a few Raiders

Iron Priest Immobs a Ravager

TWC blow up third Ravager.

 

His Third Turn:

Kills all the Cav but Canis

Kills Iron Priest

Breaks my remaining Rhino.

Drop my rhino squad down to four guys and a WG

 

My Third Turn:

Canis gets a crapload of attacks against the Homunculus Raider, needs 5s or 6s, rolls six 4s. FML.

Dread moves up, keeps stunning with his assault cannon. Ditto with the CML and Rune Priest (LL ftw) I think I got off another Immob here.

 

His Fourth Turn:

Kills Canis, blows both Rhinos. Dudes pile out.

Kills a crapload of grey hunters. The grey hunters on the left objective (not the far back) have two left. The guys on the back right objective have six left.

 

My Fourth Turn:

I blow up a Raider and stun some others. His troops pile out on the top right objective. I manage to kill one with further shooting.

 

His Fifth Turn:

Turbo boosts the only movable raider on the right side onto my right objective (passes terrain test)

More shooting, nothing particularly effectual. Most of his usable firepower was on the left side, where he had no good LOS to my troops and I was getting a lot of cover.

 

At this point, he holds the back (his side) left and the back right and is contesting the front (my side) right. He tried his damnedest to get the middleish one, but with the terrain we had (was sitting on the edge of a lake) and the sheer amount of wrecks littering that thing (ravager, rhino raider), he just couldn't get a model in. He was piiiiissed. At this point, he was sure that my six puny Wolves couldn't kill his vehicle AND the six guys in it in the same turn.

 

I hold the front left, the middle-ish one and contest the front right.

 

My Fifth Turn:

My dread moves and runs towards the back right obj (hooray for 6 on the run roll!) Contesting!

RP kills himself on a perils of the warp. That's actually the first time I've ever had that happen.

Melta-kill the Raider and assault the guys in it. Popping my banner lets me kill five of the six, and the last passes his morale test (@#&^).

 

Roll to end the game and we get a 1. Game ends.

 

I held 2 and contested 2, he held one and contested 2.

 

 

 

This was my first time playing against Dark Eldar (or really even looking at its codex), and it is a REALLY hard army to fight. I won through his mistakes (new army, he made a lot. He also forgot to move his skimmers a few times, and played very conservatively, with everything running away from me. He planned to Saim-Hann it on turn 5, and it just didn't work) and sheer luck of the dice and no other reason. I made a lot of mistakes too, tactically. There's no clear focal point and a lot of redundancy. He was play-testing this, and in retrospect he decided he was going to drop the Homunculus raider altogether and kit out his vehicles. For this game, he wanted to keep it simple, as DE have a lot of special rules. He's also going to replace some Lances with more disintegrators (is that the better-than-plasma blast template? blah, stupid slavers and their names. How many "R" vehicles are in this army???).

 

Let me just say this: for a 2nd/3rd edition codex, this thing is STILL nasty. I don't care what you bring to the table, it is going to give you a rough fight. With the Nightshields and lances, it will RUIN IG, it throws out more AP2 and anti-MEQ shots than anything I know (at range!), and with it's high strength shots is going to even give Nidzilla a run for it's money. Eldar have NOTHING on DE (I should know, I play eldar too). Tau might actually stand a decent shot. Daemons would be ok. It would eat Inquisition for breakfast. No army this old has a right to be this good. Eiverbibsch. Bjorn is not worth his points. I love the character (and this is the worst type of army for him), but I just can't justify him. Not for what I could have taken instead.

 

Man, this was a nerve wrecking fight.

 

How would you all combat it (with an all-comers list)?

[Niiai]

dark eldars looks cool.

 

Here is a list with what a good DE player is using. Just follow the second link for many good oponions on what he (and he seems god) do. :yes:

 

http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Stelek's_Dark_Eldar

[TiguriusX]

2 grey hunter squads (8 man) with melta + standard + mark + basic rhino + termie WG

 

If this is not a typo then you had an illegal list

-Terminators can't ride in Rhinos

 

Bjorn + Canis was way too much in HQs. I personally think Canis is a waste unless you have a wolf army. Lack of invulnerable save on an IC? Uggg. Bjorn can rock and roll like a mad man with an IP + servitors available for repairs.

 

I also agree your LRC was an absolute waste. Even if it didn't blow up it wasn't delivering an assault force. Your army list lacks ranged firepower (3ML + CML...all in the same squad and easy to target...yes I know it was cobbled together based on available units...but you asked how better to face DE). Would have been better served with 2 more squads of LF to give you at least 10 more ML. Might have helped splash more of his skimmers and definitely would make him spread his firepower around.

 

So...given that you basically used a 1600pt (Canis + LRC) mish-mash army with no real ranged firepower against a 2k army I would say good job.

[AdeptusDavidus]

2 grey hunter squads (8 man) with melta + standard + mark + basic rhino + termie WG

 

If this is not a typo then you had an illegal list

-Terminators can't ride in Rhinos

 

That doesn't make his list illegal, it just means that the GH squad in question couldn't ride around in their rhino until their WG leader was killed off.

[Brother Anchelos]

I'd recommend tadaa! Heavy Bolters on Long Fangs. I know Nightshields painfully limit heavy bolters' range, but they still spit out so much S5 firepower, that they can nicely chew through almost anything in his army (Dark Lances have 36" range, so there should be not so much of a problem with heavy bolter's range shortened by 6".) Also droppodding Grey Hunters with some plasma will do their job nicely especially with their counterattack.

And Living Lightning on your Rune Priest is just a bane of DE with its unlimited range and decent S7.

[Spacefrisian]

Droppoding is a bad thing to do against Dark Eldar, yes you might kill of some but after that you are pretty much screwed. Fex heavy list can screw a droppod army, (not carnifex but Terrorfex and Horrorfex)

[Niiai]

As I understand it a transport with torture bells (?) will try to tank shock you. Failing of course, but it will herd your units into a good tight ball where the raiders will throw down 2 terror grenades and 1 shot of plasma eficiently killing and pinning the unit.

 

The same army will also try to have som sort of homunculy flamers on the stansport after the "herding".

 

Edit: And that is not counting that after you have taken out the transports you have to deal with the unit inside. :pinch: Dark eldars are a one trick pony, but what a trick it is!

[MagneticFreak]

I'll admit I have a limited experience with dark eldar, but I must enphasize an important point: whatever the army, having 10+ lance/lascannon/rocket in an army is a big problem. A dark eldar force is one of the few army that can bring a LOT of cheap, mobile and very very well armed transports, resulting in a semi-ridiculous amount of fire power. I faced a similar army, built of marines in razorbacks. And Preds, and devastators.

 

Getting in close combat typically solves the problem, but thats not an answer I guess.

[Chucku]

You really want to go first vs DE. Bjorn should of helped you do that. Those Raiders go down quick - kill them and their Dark Lances ASAP.

[SpaceWolf13C]

i fight dark eldar on a weekly basis and win more than i lose but its just due to experience. the first time you fight DE you usually lose because their tactics are so radically different but once you get used to them they get shut down. you're lucky he didn't take the blasts. you would have watched your squads die quickly. you definately need long range firepower. thats what helps me out. 2 packs of long fangs sitting in cover will get rid of some DE. 2 LCs and 3MLs in each squad. if you run wolf packs those are good for assaulting raiders and ravagers. plasmas too. ravagers are your first priority. with 3 DLs on them i wouldn't even worry about them though. like i said its the blasts that hurt. i usually fire enough firepower into everything that they explode and end up killing off a small chunk of the troops inside. lol of course if you want to really make a DE player nervous take Njal. anyway hope that helps. like i said they aren't hard to beat you just need experience. my buddy does really well at tourneys with his DE because nobodys played against them. I watch everyone make mistake after mistake playing against him.