Yet another Azrael/Vet Drop Pod BR!

[SvenONE]

Played a BLOODBATH of a game last night.  My Necron friend wanted to play my Dark Eldar to try them out and the new reavers (buffed with securing objectives) and I wanted to continue to try scoring rhinos and Azrael/Ezekiel/Vet combo (SEE THE LIGHT PROT, SEE THE LIGHT...).  I had posted just yesterday about the shortcomings of Tactical Objectives and I have to say I might be coming around.  This was much better than my previous 3 games.  Sorry for no pictures my friend knows Dark Eldar from me playing them, but I was focused on helping be familiarized with the codex.  While I remembered all the objectives scored (ol' pen and paper) I don't remember entirely how everything went down so there might be some continuity errors.
 
Battle Details:
Belligerants: Dark Eldar, Dark Angels
Strength: 1850 Points
Mission: Tactical Escalation
Deployment: Dawn of War
Night Fighting: On
Mysterious Objectives: On
 
List info here:

 

 

 

• Azrael, Ezekiel
• Command Squad: Devastation, Razorback (TLLC)
• Company Veterans: 8-man, x2 Power Axe, x1 Power Sword, x5 CCW/Pistol, Drop Pod
• Dreadnought: Venerable, TL-Heavy Flamer/Heavy Flamer, Drop Pod [Locator Beacon]
• Tactical Squad x3: 10-man, x10 Boltguns, Rhino 
• Ravenwing Attack Squad: 6-man, x2 Meltagun, MMAB, Landspeeder MM/MM

Warlord Trait: Brilliant Planning (modify reserve rolls)
Ezekiel Generated Powers:  Purge Soul, Cleansing Flame
 
Notes about my list: I've wanted to run this Ezekiel/Azrael combo for 2 reasons, simply how many attacks it can generate at WS5, a 4++ save as well as Sanctic powers.  With Ezekiel generating 2 powers, I hope to get Hammerhand OR Sanctuary.  Turning all of those power weapons into S6, Azrael becomes S8 or their 4++ becomes a 3++.  Offensively I can get the Nova, the focussed witchfire I'm not crazy about and vortex of doom is just a liability.  Gate of Infinity also is a great option with a group like that.  It may be a lot of points, but that's why I fill the list out with tacticals and boltguns.  The RWAS is meant to move together and harass vehicles, normally I would start them on the board and scout them, but given how the poison turns them all into T4 basically, I left them to outflank.
 
His List:

• Archon (Huskblade/Soultrap/Combat Drugs/Webway Portal/Shadowfield
• Haemonculus (Flesh Gauntlet, Casket of Flensing)
• Incubi: 9-man, Raider [Grisly Trophies, Enhanced Aethersails]
• Trueborn: 5-man, 4x Blaster, 1x Splinter Cannon, Venom [splinter Cannon x2]
• Kabalite Warriors x3: 10-man, x1 Splinter Cannon, Raider [splinter racks]
• Wracks x2: 10-man, x2 Liquifier Gun
• Reaver x2: 6-man, Heat Lance, x2 Cluster Caltrops

Warlord Trait: Forward Planning (discard tactical objectives/regenerate new ones when invoked -- sort of confusing)

 

 

 
Tactical Objectives were setup symmetrically, 4 in a diamond all 12" away from each other in the middle, all blocked by a LOS blocking building in the middle, with the last 2 objectives in about midfield and 12ish inches from the sides of the board.

I deployed first with my drop pods in Reserve as well as the entirety of the RWAS.  Rhino 1 and 2 flanked my Razorback while Rhino 3 sat parked on an objective.  I was ready to drop my venerable right on or near one of those raiders and burn the Xenos with holy fire.  He deployed some of his raiders and his venom behind some LOS blocking buildings.
 
DARK ELDAR SEIZE
 
Turn 1
DE:
His Incubus/Archon raider moves 6" deploys 6" so he's slightly outside his deployment zone (preparing to open the Webway no doubt!).  His raiders jockey for position to lance my transports.  His bikes also position themselves to a flank, ready for any bladevane attacks.  My razorback goes down to lance fire! First Blood! I actually lose a veteran to the blast, but suffer no further casualties.  Phew.  But the Webway portal is open to the horrors that lurk beyond.
 
DA: 
My Venerable dreadnought screams in, and scatters inside the deployment and just to the side of his incubus squad.  It chars 3 incubus but the Archon tanks the rest of the saves with his Shadowfield, but blows on the last save!  Tactical Squads 1 and 2 Disembark allowing the command squad to embark for safety.  The Rhino 3 moves to TO4 and secures it for a victory point.  Unfortunately I have no AV currently to deal with the Raiders.
 
Turn 2
DE: 
The Haemonculus Wrack group comes in out of the webway portal, brandishing its Liquifier Guns front and center.  The Archon/Incubus Embark back on their raider and retreat slightly to safety.  The Venerable dreadnought goes down to blaster fire, he attempts to destroy the drop pod but fails to even glance.  The Liquifier guns are AP1 and AP3, combined with the 3 raiders in range they bring those 20 tactical marines down to 5.  4 in Tactical squad 1, and the lone Sergeant of Tactical Squad 2.  The heat lance reaver immobilizes Rhino 3.  PLANETSIDE TO AZRAEL: Condition dire, assistance required immediately.
 
DA:
Azrael, the Speeder AND the Bikes all fail their reserve rolls 3 1s.  The attack bike arrives and outflanks near the Archon Raider (within melt range).  The 5 remaining tacticals are within salvo range.  Their shots rip the Wrack squad down to half while Tactical squad 3 takes out half of the reaver squad (they make a ton of jink saves).  The MMAB immobilizes the archon and incubus raider crippling their mobility.  The wracks are forced to retreat.  With only half of my tactical personnel remaining, things are headed south for the Dark Angels in both TOs and firepower.  Will Azrael arrive in time???
 
Turn 3
DE: Second wrack squad arrives again with their liquifier guns ready.  Both Reaver squads bladevane Tactical squad 3 inflicting 6 unsaved wounds! Tactical squads 1 and 2 are wiped out completely.  Hull points are glanced on the 2 rhinos in the midfield but suffer no more damage.  Tactical squad 3 forced to fall back!  The archon and incubus disembark and charge the MMAB which it wipes out.
 
DA:
The time for action is now! All reserves rolls are made!  Azrael's drop pod cracks through the sky slamming down near the Haemonculus wrack squad.  The land speeder drops close enough to an objective being held by the Trueborn venom (objective secured speeder!!).  The bikes outflank near a raider attempting to secure a side objective.  Ezekiel attempts to harness the warp, with 2 squads of Wracks within his 9" range, a Nova will surely do the damage it needs! But he suffers perils! Suffers a wound and luckily isn't ripped into the warp.  With no warp charges left he lacks any energy to manifest anything else.  Bolt pistols sail into the far wrack squad and force them into a retreat.
Meanwhile, a demolition derby has begun.  Tactical Squad 2's rhino driver, in a fury over his fallen brothers rams a kabalite raider penning and shaking its crew.  The meltaguns of the bikes tear through it's hull forcing it to explode and bring the squad down to 5 strong.  The speeder brings down the venom which wounds and kills 2 Trueborn and the drop pods kill 2 more with their stormbolters

 

Turn 4

DE: 
The volume of fire on Azrael's squad is immense.  He tanks 8 wounds from Bladevane reavers, but suffers 1, and a full Raider unloads into the vets.  3 vets give their lives for Ezekiel and the CASKET OF FLENSING IS UNLEASHED but while is S5, is also AP5 this time.  Ezekiel shrugs it off.  The other reaver squad finishes off the last of Tactical Squad 3, which leaves only the bikes and Azrael's Vets standing along with vehicles.  The bike squad after taking 2 squads of raider fire are down to 2 bikers but remain in banner range for the following turn and pass their LD.  The Haemonculus squad charges but loses 2 to overwatch, the Haemonculus challenges and Ezekiel rises to the occasion.  He swings and lands all his hits and 3 wounds! The Haemonculus fails his FNPs and falls!  Azrael cuts the remaining 2 Wracks down.
 
DA:  
Azrael and his remaining vets move towards the reaver squad, the land speeder turbo boosts to discover the last objective for the Recon TO.   ANOTHER Ezekiel Nova fails but this time with a safe perils.  Tactical Rhino 2 attempts to tank shock the warriors in front of him.  They are in a direct line of fall back, so fall back and are crushed beneath it's treads!  The Salvo banner shoots the Archon which is trying to footslog towards a raider, they lose 2 Incubi, leaving the squad at 2 Incubi and the Archon.  They fail their morale check and fall back 12"
 
Turn 5
DE:
The Wrack squad can't rally and falls off the board, the smaller reaver squad make a play for a middle objective since the other 2 TOs are being contested by the land speeder and a rhino, both objective secured!  The other bladevanes Azrael/Ezekiel  Both armies are significantly reduced from their starting forces, the Archon changes his plans and proceeds towards Azrael who at this point is only accompanied by Ezekiel, both down a wound each.  The combatants are exhausted from the raging battle.
 
DA:
Ezekiel FINALLY casts cleansing flame and gets 11 hits on the nearby reaver squad, completely wiping all 6 out, this in turn also denies me my TO of destroying a unit in the assault phase.  He then tries to purge soul on the true born but is denied by 5 dice!
 
With both sides beleaguered from battle, we see if the game continues.  It does!! 
 
Turn 6
DE:
2 Raiders sit on objectives as does the remaining Trueborn which scores another objective point.  The Archon and his remaining incubus attempt a 9" charge, the incubus takes a wound but makes his FNP, even with fleet he fails the charge.
 
DA:
Ezekiel and Azrael move towards the Archon and his remaining incubus.  EZEKIEL ACTUALLY GETS A MIND WORM TO CAST.  The archon rolls 5 dice to deny and hits 2 6's, but can't hit the 3rd to nullify Ezekiel's 3 warp charges he successfully manifested.  I get 3 hits, hit 2, wound twice.  I shrieked at the success! My wife then yelled at me.  We had already been yelling at the tv for world cup a few hours before and now this! It wasn't to last though, the Archon made both Look out Sir rolls, the first passed by a FNP, but the second was eaten by the Incubus.... one day mind worm... one day.  Nothing much else around the board, the command squad rhino has moved to block the path of a raider if it needs to move and for the 3rd time in as many turns Tactical Squad 2's Rhino rams another raider but to no effect.  Ezekiel and Azrael charge the Archon.  He challenges and Azrael, more than willing to accept, obliges.  The archon hits twice but fails to wound (with a re-rolling combat drugs might I add), Azrael returns in kind, with one chop the Archon is killed instantly by the Sword of Secrets.
 
IT GOES TO TURN 7.
 
At this point all that remains are 2 raiders of warriors and the last trueborn while I have Azrael/Ezekiel and a Speeder.  Normally we'd have ended it, but with Tactical Objectives still in play, we play on.
 
The DE raiders wreck the rhino, which was denying an objective from them, the command squad is gunned down by the splinter weapons aboard.  In my turn I draw the "behind enemy lines" objective.  I flat-out my speeder and split Azrael and Ezekiel off to their own units.  I get the max 3 points for it.  The game ends...
 
It was an insane game.  It really made me want to get a double of my army so I could replace the models with corpses, there was so much bloodshed!
 
The final score was 14 to 11.  Here's the breakdown of TOs achieved:
 
DA: 12, 16, 22, 23, 24, 26, 34, 41, 42 (3), 55: 12 + Linebreaker + STW
DE:  15, 21, 23, 32, 33, 35, 41, 44 (2), 66: 10 + FB
 

Closing Thoughts
Really the most notable thing I can think about is how 7th edition will be the age of the fast attack unit or extremely mobile transports.  I was flat-outting everywhere.  Empty rhinos are pretty much good for nothing and their stormbolters aren't saving the day so you may as well move them onto objectives and let opponents waste firepower.  I had a feeling Reavers were going to be good, but they are STUPID good.  They can jink (3+) all they want and still damage you considerably, all the while taking an objective on the other side of the table...the long way.  Aside from my poor razorback, the rhinos really proved themselves.  You'll see I got objective 4 twice, which was captured by an immobilized rhino which sat there for nearly 5 turns.  The speeder only ever fired its MM to pop the venom and then zoomed around the map and picked up Objective 6 twice, one time identifying it to get the Recon TO.  I got objective 3 by deep striking next to it bc of the locator beacon.  

 

Ezekiel not hitting psyker powers was not good, though having LD10 saves you from the serious rolls on the Perils table.  I played a Daemons player a few days ago and it came in handy but I was lucky and hit a lot of powers without perils.  He was in range of about 3 different units and couldn't seal the deal!! I still really like that combo even though that configuration is basically 600 points.  It's a great base and could only be made better depending on what Ezekiel rolls.  I think it's a half decent power armor-army killer and a great Xenos killer.  Seeing as how the command squad did very little in the way of both providing salvo or LD re-rolls, I could have saved there and brought another tac squad altogether.  The bikes and the tacticals were there mainly to get shot once Azrael dropped but he was late and I had to start shooting the Wracks before they got too close.

 

A great game nonetheless and a fun win.  He already wants a rematch.

[Prot]

Excellent report! Congrats!

 

A few notes:

- Ezekeil only generating 2 powers? We play he has 3 powers generated from the same pool here.

 

- Dakka Banner? Nice. I may have to try it in my list.

 

- Sanctic? Wow, you are gutsy. I'm finding psychic powers so tough to generate, I fear the extra Perils possibilties! Plus I play Nids a fair amount lately, and passing a Perils is nearly impossible against those buggers.

 

What you're discovering in 7th pretty much reflects my own thoughts.... movement, and super scoring is king. Pretty much all of my games have been like the one you're describing. 7th (Malestrom) forces flexibilty and.... interaction during a game! Bloodbaths galore.

 

I really think a good toolbox list (like you can provide in Dark Angels) is a great thing in 7th. Dark Angels may not be the best at it, but so far I think we are competitive!

 

Thanks for posting this.

[SvenONE]

Well the codex says he generates 2 others, I didn't list banishment only because I didn't have any Daemons, but he'd get the Primaris for sure.  But 3 powers from 3 trees I don't consider legal (stupid Mind Worm).

 

I may not run the command squad when we play again, I think I'd rather some extra bodies somewhere, I didn't find it all that helpful (razorback too).  I may instead opt for more bikes or RWSS, I really liked the speeder zipping around claiming (and contesting) objectives.

[Darkangeldentist]

Nice battle report and some great conclusions. I agree with most of them and in fact will be writing my own report soon. Got my second game of 7th edition in this evening and got to try tactical objectives in addition to using Azrael and Ezekiel but in a very different manner.

 

Very enjoyable to read and thank you for writing it.