Here is a battle report from Bobo, who attended Agram Arena 2011 WH40K tournament:
Greetings to everyone.
We spent this weekend attending the local tournament in the role of either participants (me) or cheerleaders and hangers-on (hi guys ;) ). It was the first tournament for me and I had lots of fun and played against some great guys and armies.
I gave my brand new Dark Eldar army a gentle (because the paint was still wet) twirl and managed to finish sixth which came as a pleasant surprise. As I've previously played only 3 games with this army, every match was a learning experience and next time hopefully I'll make less mistakes. Like forgetting to place troop choices on objectives in turn 5. I know. :D
I'll keep it short because full battle reports would take up a couple of pages, but if you feel the inclination to read a page of two of ramblings and dice gone wrong, chime in in the comments and we'll make it so.
Also, if anyone reading this has pictures of any of my fights, please contact us and with your permission we'll post them here.
The first fight (spearhead/seize ground) was against a Tyranid opponent and the result was a massacre for me. It was a Genestealer heavy list with 4 or so MC's. I went first, shot. Killed stuff. Genestealers flanked in turn 2 but by then I was in the middle of the board and finishing up the rest of his army. Poison weapons and lances are fun. Dark Eldar are a very tough match up for the griblies. What with all the joyful killing, there was a moment of "what do you mean, this was my turn 5" but the dice was on my side so I got the sixth turn to put stuff on the objectives. And to clean the table in turn 7.
I knew the second fight (dawn of war/annihilation) would be "interesting" because of the result in the first one (I read about submarining but I wanted to go against stronger armies to see whether I sucked) and it was against a team colleague playing Blood Angels with the jolly librarian Mephiston, a Land Raider Redeemer, 8 Death Company, 5 assault terminators and some other stuff. His list I know by heart because we spent the previous couple of weeks painting it for the tournament and it was lovely to see it across the table (also, a self-advertising moment - the army got the highest painting score of the tournament. It didn't win the best painted army because I guess not enough people have a fetish for red :) ).
I went second, as usual when it mattered. Dice were not on my side so it in 5 turns of shooting 20 lances i barely killed a Landraider, a Drop pod and Mephy. Of course, first turn I lost a ravager to a single missile launcher and a venom was immobilized by a storm bolter on the drop pod (it would happen again in the final when a drop pod would wreck a flat-out raider full of wyches - fear the fury of the drop pod :D). It was a tough game where I tried to keep my distance with a counter-charge at the end. It damn near succeeded, even with my dice, and we ended up 5-5 in kill-points. The game ended turn 5 which was extremely fortunate for me and there were some angry DC and assault terminators staring at immobilized raiders.
The third game (pitched battle/capture and control) was unusual because I faced the fabled new Grey Knights for the first time. It was a rock list, with lots and lots of points (Draigo, Librarian and Paladins) in a single Land Raider. I was faster and his long range shooting wasn't plentiful (a lascannon razorback, a lascannon/plasma canon dreadnought and 6 or so of psycannons). And that Land Raider can't be on both bases at once. :D Got second turn again which was meh and then shot the first raider lance at the LR and blew it up. It smoked and was shrouded. You do the odds, I was in shock. :D I recovered quickly and began shooting at the paladins stranded in the middle of the table. Each of his shots in turn killed a vehicle, except for some "remove from table" template power which I flickerfielded away. :D It took a while (because both me and my opponent blew it with rules for feel no pain) and in the end the game ended turn 5 with a draw. I failed to shift troops to his objective in time (one raider was immobilized short thanks to my suckage on rounding blast scatters up or down) and my Razorwing scattered missiles like it was a Charlie Chaplin movie. A single roll of the dice (again) decided the outcome and decided that turn 5 was last which prevented me from tabling the opponent and removing his 3 or 4 remaining marines from his base. A close game but nothing like the next one.
Game four (pitched battle/seize ground) was against the second seated player (I think he was undefeated at the time, I still don't get it how I managed to fight against the best opponents with two draws but such is karma :) ) with a lovely painted Chaos/Slaaneshi/Khorne/Nurgle list (a squad of marines for each god, two Lash Demon Princes, 2 Oblits and a big pile of Slaaneshi terminators). Yes, it was a huge pink on purple slug fest. :) I finally went first and took out a demon prince and the oblits and flanked to the left where his cover and placement were sparse. His stuff shot and ran forward on the right. It took me (again) the whole fight to kill a single rhino but in the end I took out all of his troop choices but one and won. And if it sounds easy, it's a lie. The game (again) depended on the dice roll for turns 6 and 7 because he had a single plague marine on the objective who took 15 Lances and 24 poison shots to die. I recommend him for a posthumous medal. :)
The fifth and last game (spearhead/annihilation) was against a previously undefeated fellow, a defending champion who squished everyone so far. 3 Long Fang Squads, a Thunderwolf Lord with a gang of wolf riding vengeance, two priests with squads in 2 rhinos, the previously mentioned drop pod of doom and some other stuff. This was my first fight against Space Wolves but I heard enough about the list from people being squished by it. :) By this time I was beyond caring and quite pleased with myself. I also knew I needed to go first to wreck and not be wrecked. Unfortunately, I didn't. The layout of the table was kind of weird (which one of the judges nearby also mentioned - a suggestion for the tournament organizers if any of you are reading this - make sure that the table where the final game is played isn't one of the weird tables:) ) so I reserved. Probably a mistake, but my quarter was one huge completely flat piece of terrain with no cover for vehicles and I didn't want half my army immobilized. Also, having never been in this situation before, I couldn't judge if ten raiders can be crammed into the corner and be out of Long Fang range. Some measuring needs to be done later. :D
Near half my army entered from reserves second turn out of LOS of one of the Long Fang squads. I took out one LF squad (except one guy) and killed the sergeant of the other. He shot back, drop pod killed its target, living lightning and long fangs took out theirs. My long range anti-infantry was logically the primary target. Most of my army entered second turn, 2 wych squads fleeted well and got into close combat, agonized two of his squads down to a guy or two (and failed to kill the solitary long fang), were counterattacked and died. My saves for both combat and flickerfield were bad, and the opponent took out everything he shot at. Then wolf lord came to visit me and 30 poison shots managed to inflict only one wound on the squad. By turn four the fat lady had sung so I threw everything forward just for the kicks. :D I was tabled but it was by a better player and he took both the first place and Best General so all the best to him. :)
In retrospect, I need (much much) more practice with the army as I completely forgot that Trueborn can get also pain tokens, that the flickerfield works for failed dangerous terrain tests, etc.
The Razorwing is a beautiful model but the scatter dice suck even with a pie plate. I'll try to eliminate the element of chance as much as possible. I don't think a small blast weapon managed to directly hit any of my vehicles (as they are nice and narrow) during the whole tournament. Well, either that or the flickerfields saved me. :)
Nightshields were a waste of points in all the games but first, but flickerfields saved my ass a couple of times. Venoms are marvelously efficient so I'll get more of them (for the Long Fangs ;) ). And the obligatory third ravager. And the baron, mostly for the +1 for going first. And beasts, so he can have someone to cuddle up to at night. :)
I still have problems with vehicles (just like everyone else) and I didn't play IG to see exactly how many problems I have, but I'll anyways have to think up of something to improve that. Maybe scourges with lances, hm.
Name of the game: Defeating dice with huge numbers.
To sum up things, I had a fun time with almost all of the games depending on a dice roll or two. Thanks for a great game to any of my opponents reading this, I hope that the rest of the attendees had fun as well.
And here is the Dark Eldar army list:
Dark Eldar – Burning Skimmers of Purple Fury
Total: 1749
HQ:
Haemonculus 50 (75)
-Liquifier gun 10
-Shattershard 15
Haemonculus 50 (80)
-Liquifier gun 10
-Liquifier gun 10
-Crucible of Malediction 20
Elite
(3) Kabalite Trueborn 36 (146)
(3) Blaster 45
Venom 55
-Splinter canon 10
(3) Kabalite Trueborn 36 (146)
(3) Blaster 45
Venom 55
-Splinter canon 10
(3) Kabalite Trueborn 36 (146)
(3) Blaster 45
Venom 55
-Splinter canon 10
Troops
(8)Wyches 80 (194)
-(7)Haywire grenades 14
-Hexatrix 10
-Agoniser 20
Raider 60
-Flickeshield 10
(9)Wyches 90 (211)
-(8)Haywire grenades 16
-Hexatrix 10
-Agoniser 20
Raider 60
-Agoniser 20
Raider 60
-Flickershield 10
-Torment Grenade Launchers 5
(9)Wyches 90 (206)
-(8)Haywire grenades 16
-Hexatrix 10
-Agoniser 20
Raider 60
-Agoniser 20
Raider 60
-Flickershield 10
(5)Warriors 45 (130)
-Blaster 15
Raider 60
-Flickershield 10
Heavy support
Ravager 105 (125)
-Flickershield 10
- Nightshields 10
Ravager 105 (125)
-Flickershield 10
- Nightshields 10
Razorwing Jetfighter 145 (165)
-Splinter canon 10
-Night shields 10
-Night shields 10
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