Hello everyone! My name is Zak Ludick from Cape Town, South Africa and this is Warhammer 40,000 the tabletop boardgame!
I sought to test my mettle against the insidious power of the Dark Eldar - the Drukhari of Commoragh!
I wished to taste defeat... but only after giving it my all! Anton brought his great looking, knife-eared army to give me that opportunity!
So this is how it went:
We randomly drew our Deployment as Dawn of War and our Primary Mission was Deploy Servo-skulls.
This mission is where the middle three Objectives are Servo skulls. Holding them and pushing them towards your enemy's deployment zone would give you more Victory Points.
For a Mission Rule Anton drew this card and explained to me that we cannot play Gambits. I was alright with that.
Of course I took some time to explain why I take a bunch of photos of our match and showed Anton Ecency/Hive.
Here we are in all our hairy glory!
If there is ever more than one Anton then I will refer to him as Anton the Bearded! 😁
We rolled off for Attacker/Defender. I chose Attacker and Anton had to place the first unit. This is the usual cat and mouse game of 40k where you do not want to deploy in a disadvantageous way but also deploy where you won't lose your whole army in turn one.
As I had said in my pre-game post, I had full confidence in the Dark Eldar speed and range finding me no matter how I hid... so I did not and focussed on lining up damage for future turns. In this game you do not know if you go first or second. That you roll for after Deployment is done.
I had determined the previous day that deploying forward and taking control of the board was my best shot. And presenting more targets than can be easily eliminated was also on my cards.
In the end our deployment looked like this:
The battlefield.
From the right-hand side of the battlefield:
Bjorn the Fell Handed
Razorback with Grey Hunters
Redemptor Dreadnought
Right to left here is my Vindicator, the Thunderwolves, Land Raider with Blood Claws and Wulfen Dreadnought.
And on the far left flank, Razorback and Grey Hunters.
I might have wanted more unit on this side because of what was across from them, but I did not have the space to deploy much more.
Meanwhile my opponent Deployed like this:
Going right to right to left here again:
Outside the deployment zone is a unit of Mandrakes. They have the ability to fade off the battlefield and appear wherever they need to be. They are like spooky assassins.
First ruin on the right:
Ravager - the vehicle with the most anti-tank
Scourges - Flying guys with anti-tank
Cronos - A support Monster
Hellions - think Green Goblin
Then the next ruin:
Archon with a unit of Kabilites
Incubi
Then the next ruin:
You can see one Venom with 5 Kabilites inside
Behind that ruin is a unit of Wracks led by an Haemonculus.
The final ruin has:
A Raider with a unit of Wyches including Lelith Hesperax
Another Venom with a unit of Kabilites
More Scourges with anti-tank.
Additionally there was another Raider in reserves with a squad of Incubi led by Drazhar. This would be flying down from high up as a Deep Strike maneuver.
Right, let me include some more close-ups of the units before turn one:
Deployment was done and thus we needed to roll for turn 1!
Zak rolls: A 2!
Anton rolls! A 1!
Zak takes first turn!
Turn 1 Space Wolves
So I rolled forward with all speed ahead just as my pre-warmup post said I would. I did not try to hide during my deployment because the Dark Eldar are too fast to hide my massive tanks from. I then was in a great position to get some angles of fire to see some of his army.
On the Right Flank the Razorback put a dent into the one Venom, Bjorn the Fell-Handed finished it off with his Helfrost Cannon with a flat 5 Damage.
This ended up earning me my first and only Saga of the match: Saga of the Beast Slayer. From Turn 2 onwards, close combat weapons in my army have Lethal Hits. This is because Bjorn is a Character and he destroyed a Vehicle.
In the center, the Vindicator blew up the Wracks.
On the Left Flank the Razorback shot at the Ravager, damaging it. The Ravager was the target of my first Oath of Moment while my opponent, Anton used his first Command Point to use the Stratagem: Quicksilver Reflexes to make the vehicle harder to Hit.
I did not like that so I used Bjorn's Ancient Tactician to increase the CP cost of Quicksilver to 2.
It survived and I shot with everything I could from my Land Raider at the Ravager. It came down to the One-Shot per game Hunter Killer Missile to finish it off and it exploded! Dealing damage to the Scourges, killing one, a wound on one Hellion and three wounds off the Cronos! Amazing!
I also had command of all three Servo Skulls, lining myself up for lots of Victory Points. I also achieved some secondary objectives as well with Bring it Down.
Drukhari Turn 1
The Drukhari were in a bit of trouble, but Anton had a plan to take objectives away from me and deal some damage.
His Scourges flew into a building nearby my Wulfen Dreadnought and I used a Command Point to activate a Stratagem: Overwatch, allowing him to shoot at the Scourges. Since they had lost only one model, the unit still had all four Dark Lances. Taking more of them down would be great for me.
The Heavy Flamer on the Wulfen Dreadnought does not need 6's to Hit since it is a Torrent weapon and I managed to crisp two Scourges!
In return, Anton used his Archon's ability to increase the CP cost of Overwatch to 2. He also targeted and blew up the Wulfen Dreadnought with focussed firepower. He really does not like Flamers!
A Venom flew over to the centre of the board, taking the centre objective from me. He had plans to use an ability to allow the Kabalites to fly out, tap the Objective, shoot and get back in their transport all in one turn! So many synergestic tricks and abilities. Really a good combo.
But I had my own trick up my sleeve. Before he could run away, he had shot at my Thunderwolves. The Wolf Guard Battle Leader has an ability for once per game, when we are shot at, we run D6 inches towards the enemy and this CAN take us into engagement range. And I caught the little squad of Kabalites. They were destroyed.
Space Wolves Turn 2
Since we were trying to get stuff done I did not take too many pictures.
On the Right Flank with Bjorn, the wolves rushed forward again, Grey Hunters got out of their trasport and let fly Plasma and Bolter shots. The Razorback, Bjorn, Redemptor Dreadnought and the Vindicator decimated every last model on that side of the board including the Vindicator landing a shell on Lelith's head. Splat!
In the centre the Thunderwolves advanced on to the Archon, Kabalites and Incubi. Unfortunately I advanced my Thunderwolves and accidentally spent a CP I needed to allow them to make this charge. I then had them hanging there just before the enemy!
On the Left Flank my shooting tore into the Mandrakes and my Grey Hunters took down the remaining Scourges on that side of the board. They also Charged the Cronos.
Meanwhile my Blood Claws disembarked from the Land Raider and shot and charged the Hellions, mowing them down.
I had scored a hefty bill on both Primary and Secondary Objectives.
Drukhari Turn 2
Drazhar and more Incubi arrived in a Raider and landed in my Deployment area, pretty much only focussed on scoring some additional Victory Points and staying out of trouble.
The remaining remnants of Anton's army moved to fire upon the Thunderwolves with everything they had and the Incubi charged and killed the Wolf Guard Battle Leader. Now a separate unit, the Wolf Lord was spared.
Space Wolves Turn 3
The final units of Incubi, the Kabalites, the final Venom, the new Raider that landed, the Archon and the Mandrakes were all destroyed.
Drazhar and his Incubi jumped into some cover where they could not be seen by my army and remained all that survived the battle at that point.
Anton conceded at this point, we had to pack up as the store was busy closing.
At the end the Victory Points counted up were 34 for 23 in my favour.
Another turn for me would have given me a lot of points for Primary Objectives.
Final Thoughts
So I did not get to taste defeat.
But I did learn a lot.
Anton started this army during 9th Edition and is part of the Slow Grow event of the year. Then we got 10th Edition and all the rules for his army changed. They went from a glass cannon combat army to a glass cannon shooting army.
I can say for sure that Dark Eldar are SCARY and if they maximize their army towards Dark Lances and a few choice units, it would be difficult for me to survive them.
I did however play well in this match. I had a clear idea of what I wanted to accomplish and I did exactly what I planned to do.
Thank you very much to Anton! It was a great game and I look forward to playing more games with you!
I shall search for more opponents. It is highly likely that I have a game lined up for tomorrow night!
Cheers!
