Dark Eldar: Aldershot Ardboyz - June 2013 – Part 1

So as I said last time, I was on my way to my first tournament with the new Eldar. This was my first tournament in a while due to weddings and pull outs meaning my last tournament was back in March. So once more unto the Breach my friends! I went with the Dark Eldar army from last times blog. This is part 1!



The army list

So this is the list from last weeks episode if you forgot!

The tournament was a 1850 pts forgeworld allowed tournament

HQ

Baron Sathonyx: 105

Elites

3 Trueborn, 2 Splinter Cannon, Venom Extra Splinter Cannon: 121

3 Wracks, Venom Extra Splinter Cannon, Grisley Trophies 100

Troops

5 Dark Eldar Warriors, Venom, Extra Splinter Cannon 110

5 Dark Eldar Warriors, Venom, Extra Splinter Cannon 110

5 Dark Eldar Warriors, Venom, Extra Splinter Cannon 110

5 Wych's, Haywire Grenades, Venom, Extra Splinter Cannon 125

Fast Attack

Beastmaster, 4 Beastmasters, 10 Kymera, 4 Razorwing Flocks: 228

Heavy Support

Ravager 105

Ravager 105

Ravager 105

Allies: Eldar

Farseer: 100

Jetbikes: 51

Crimson Hunter: 160

Night Spinner: 115

Fortification, Aegis: 100

The 1st game

So with the thought that me and Luke wanted to watch the second Lions test and with 2 hours before it started, I went into this game wanting to play an army fast…. Fortunately (or unfortunately!) I played an army with 4 Land Raiders and 2 Storm Ravens. My opponent was John Hall. Id played him at the previous tournament when he has 1 less stormraven, it was a close game and so it was to prove again.

It was night fight turn 1 (yay!) but I was going second (boo!) so after John deployed spread along the board, I set up my army in a corner and I reserved all my ravagers. So they didn't die to spot lighting.

I managed to down 3 of the 4 land raiders. The crimson hunter failed to kill a stormraven then died savagely to the return fire.

The game ended on turn 5 with 3 objective to me and one for John. I think in this case it showed my total lack of a back up plan. Because id lost several haywire units, I had to act so my ravagers didn't die and that reduced my ability to potentially compete against a vehicle army.

The crimson hunter was a disappointment not because it failed to kill the raven, but because it’s a one shot wonder. Onces its shot its 4 lance shots it’s a sitting duck to even snap shots.

So a nice win and some healthy victory points sky rocketed me to table 2 or 3 (I cant remember which!) and a showdown with my previous tournament nemesis, Stephan Setterfield.

2nd Game

So after our trip down the local pub to watch the rugby we came back a little lightheaded and I was to play my first game vs Tau and the guy who beat me in the last tournament (other than Luke of course) Stephan Setterfield.

Steve was using a standard ish Tau army with 6 broadsides 1 skyray a riptide plenty of fire warriors and a crisis suit team and a commander.

Again it was night fight and I lost first turn, but I stole the initiative…. Hooray!!!

I had deployed out of 36 so jumped into range and unleashed my army against his. He put everything to ground except the skyray (obvious) lost plenty of drones and a broadside and the night spinner cause the death of 8 or so fire warriors.

Essentially the same thing happened the next turn me loose a few tanks but me pinning steve down.
It was in turn 3 I made a horrible error that cost me the game.

I had the choice between charging 3 crisis suits and the commander. Or the centre of the tau battleline… My mind said the crisis team. It was an easy kill, there would be little return fire and that would make the unit closes to the riptide and another pain token. So obviously I ended up charging the middle of the tau battleline instead.

A couple of marker light hits meant my unit was chewed up so much by broadsides and fire warriors it has removed 14 models and essentially gave Steve the game. I no longer had a threatening unit and my vehicles were now the sole target of a viscous amount of fire power. A bad loss and no victory points for me!
I learned here to divded and conquer tau. Charging there battle line is idiotic, take out their isolated units and pin them in place. Don’t get greedy or you’ll be punished.

3rd Game

I’d sobered up a little here and was up against Kiran Reddy. Now Kiran is always so unlucky against me. It was inevitable then what was going to happen when he brought a new age seer council to the board.

Kiran lost before the game started when he didn't roll Fortune or Jink for his seer council. This meant they were 50 point jet bikes. I took no chances, going first I shot these guys to pieces and killed a few drones (yeah allied tau!). It was always a uphill struggle for Kiran and I wiped him out fully my turn 5 after a farseer and 3 jetbikes made a late run for my objective. My venoms had other ideas.

This goes to show people…. Probability is a bitch. Do you rely on combos for your army to be good? Do you have to roll those combos? Then it'll fail when you need it most. Kiran coulda got away without fortune against some armies. Against mine it was always going to be a struggle.

Another win and a tonne of VP’s sent me into Day 3 pretty happy.

Check the blog next time for my next 3 games and the subsequent changes to my army! Till then….