Starsmash - Part One - The Toughest Tournament in My 2011 Calender

[Reflection]

Two months ago I went to the tournament I had been building up to all year.  For me this is the toughest tournament of my tournament calender, and would be a real test of my improvement over the last two years.  I have been going to more tournaments and trying to get more games inbetween tournaments to up my game.

Starsmash is also my local tournament, run by local club (Spiky club).  It's 1500 points (I would prefer 1750 points, but variation is always good and shakes things up), 5 games and no comp.  What I think makes the tournament so competitive is a number of factors, the two main ones being that it very well run (helped by the fact that it's in it's 10th year at least), it's easy to get to with good rail and motorway links, and it's counts for full points on the Rankings HQ website.

Last year taking my Tau I finished very low, so I wanted to finish at least top half, with an top ten finish being ideal (out of 40ish players).

Rather than full battle reports, over the next few weeks I will show my main learnings from each game, from deployment & terrain rules to the dangers of clumping, and how the good or bad decisions in these areas affected the game.  First up will be deployment from Game 1.

Rathstar

PS. The list I used at Starsmash was:

Haemonculus Nalix Soulseer - 55
with Venom Blade

6 Incubi - 132
in Raider with Dark Lance - 60

3 Trueborn with 3 Blasters - 81
in Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons - 65

3 Trueborn with 3 Blasters - 81
in Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons - 65

10 Wracks with 2 Liquifier Guns - 120
in Raider with Dark Lance - 60

9 Wyches incl. Hekatrix with Venom Blade - 105
in Raider with Dark Lance - 60

8 Wyches incl. Hekatrix with Venom Blade - 95
in Raider with Dark Lance - 60

3 Wracks - 30
in Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons - 65

Ravager with 3 Dark Lances & Shock Prow - 115

Ravager with 3 Dark Lances & Shock Prow - 115

Razorwing Jetfighter - 145
with 2 Dark Lances, twin-linked Spinter Rifle & 4 Monoscythe missiles

Total: 1499 Pts

Battle for Planet OG II - Belated Game 3 Battle Report

Well this battle report is well overdue, as I returned yesterday from Battle for Planet OG IV.

Overviews of battles one and two can be found in the comments section of this post. The scenario was:

" The battle for the cells has had consequences beyond any ones perception. The battle that ensued after the initial raid is suddenly interrupted by eruption and devastation. Huge tremors result in magma filled geysers erupting from craters around the battlefield, shooting many feet into the air and inflicting terrible damage to all it contacts. Time to win the conflict fast before Mother Terra takes you both out "

Primary Mission: Kill them all

Table Quarters Deployment

Place an objective in the middle of the board.

At the beginning of every players turn, roll 8d6 and scatter a large blast    template from the center of the board (this always scatters). If it hits the edge of the board bounce it back again using the remaining movement.

 - Any unit hit by this template will suffer 2D6 S8 AP 1 hits

 - Any vehicle hit will suffer an auto S10 AP 1 hit

Cover saves may be taken by infantry if applicable (as they try to dive for safety), however any model caught directly may not (and must always have the most amount of wounds allocated to it)

As time is not on your side, prioritising your targets is key, this is a kill points mission with the following changes.

 - HQ units are worth 3 KP each.

 - Elites / Heavy Support are worth 2 KP each

 - Everything else is worth 1 KP each

Secondary Mission:

The eruptions have thrown up a (previously) deeply rooted Cell of enormous stature and power.

The winner of the mission is the one who has the most troops choices within a 6 inches of the center of the objective.

The Game 

My opponent had taken 2 max sized platoons with 7 heavy weapons accross the 10 infantry squads.  A Command HQ had a medic to give them feel no pain, and a master of the ordance.  The basic infantry was rounded out by a heavy weapon squad of 2 lascannon teams and 1 missile launcher team.  Within the infantry was a 2 commassairs ready to make up to 50 guys stubbon, and an hq slot psyker was also included.   The odd meltagun and many grenade launchers were scattered through the infantry as well.

Finally Orgyns and Rough riders were included to give his horde a nice counter attack responce, while a squad of ratling snipers was included to round out the force.

After complaining in many recent games that my anti tank kept failing me, this opponent had completely nerfed my anti tank by taking not a single vehcile.  They couldn't even instant kill orgyns because they were toughness 5.  However they would be useful for instant killing the heavy weapon teams and ignoring the feel no pain on the command squad.

This mission was a modified kill point mission, ie. hq was worth 3 kill points, heavy and elite slots were worth 2 kill points, everything else was 1 kill point.  My kill point total increased from it's normal total of 18 to 26.  While the guard had the option to combine his squads vastly reducing his kill point total.  The basic guard modified kill points was 23, however of the 10 guard squads they were split into a mob of 50 guys with 2 heavy weapons, a mob of 30 guys with 3 heavy weapons & a mob of 20 guys with 2 heavy weapons.  This reduced his kill points by 7.

The deloyment was Spearhead, and as a bit of random fun, each turn a larget template would scatter 8D6 from the centre of the board, anything infantry touched by the template would suffer 2D6 Str 8 Ap2 hits.  Vehicles (even glanced by the template would suffer an automatic str10 ap1 hit.  To make up for this the secondary objective was to have the most troop choices within 6" of the middle of the board.

Every game you should come up with a game plan (but have the flexibility to change it on the fly).  Mine for this game was simple.  I couldn't win a straight up shooting match, having to kill 20 or 30 guys to get rid of 2 or 3 heavy weapons when they are in cover simply wouldn't happen.  This game would be won or lost in the assault phase.  My assault elements would move as fast as possible towards combat, while everything else advances to the middle of the board (to be safe from the scattering template, average scatter = 28").

I won the roll off and decided to go first, which had the added bonus that I could put the Guard in the top right hand quarter that had the least terrain.  There was a small ruined walls terrain piece in the middle of the board.  In the guard quarter there was a forest about 10" from the centre of the board, and a 3 story ruin in the top right had corner of the board.  There was a multi story ruin in each other corner of the board, a few forests scatter round the small middle ruin.

With the scattering template I decided to set up in a loose quarter circle 12" from the middle of the board.  My opponent put a blob of 20 guys with 2 heavy weapons and the psyker in the ruin in the top right hand corner of the board, along with the command hq on the first floor, and the heavy weapon team split between the 2nd and 3rd floors.  The orgryns were hiding in the ruin behind the 20 infantry.  A blob of 30 guys (with 3 heavy weapons and a commassair to make them stubbon) were deployed stretching from just behind the forest in his quarter all the way back to the right hand table edge.

The two platoon commands were left in reserve (my opponent probably worried about easy kill points).  Joining them in reserve was a blob of 50 guys (with 2 heavy weapons and a commassair to make them stubbon), and the rough riders.

Remember all the blob squads had multiple sergaents with power weapons and the psyker had  power weapons making them a daunting prospect in assault.  Lastly 5 scouts deployed in the ruin in the bottom right hand corner.

Luckily I did not have initiative stolen from me, and was able to start turn 1.  I was lucky with the scattering template an it scattered towards the guard lines.  It hit the blob of 20 guys and killed 5 of them, and killed one of the command squad.  After that the template did not hit anything else, it didn't scatter towards the guard quarter and I moved my army into the middle of the board knowing the average scatter would take it 28" away (so I won't mention it again).

All four raiders with assault troops moved nearly the maxiumum 24" forwards, all stopping just before the forest, the rest moved 12" into the middle of the board to avoid the scattering template and get in range of the guard.  I started by shooting the razorwing missiles at the heavy weapon squad (hoping to instant kill them).  As they were split between levels I could only get 2 models with a hit.  A combination of bad scattering and good cover saves meant that I only killed one base.  Splinter cannons did little to the command squad with their feel no pain, and most of the ravager lances were stopped by cover saves.

I think this was bad target priority by me.  Although it would have been nice to try and instant kill the heavy weapon teams the fact that they were on different levels meant that I had to get a hit or only move and inch to hit any of them.  A much better target would have been the unit of 20 infantry that had already lost 5 models.  They were quite packed and all on the ground floor.  The razorwing would probably have reduced them down to the size that just one of my close combat squads could have killed them.  Ideally I had to kill the guard squads quickly because their multiple power weapons would take a toll on my fragile squads.

Splinter cannons should also have gone into the 20 man squad to help reduce them to much more manageable levels.  Given that I was likely to be out of range with the ravager darklance to fire at the heavy weapon teams they should have gone into the command squad (to ignore feel no pain).

With no reserves, the guard stayed still in their turn.  They blew up the raider with the wyches and the haemonoculus.  Luckily no-one died due to having feel no pain, and they passed their pinning test.  The wrack raider was also blown up, and again no-one was hurt due to higher toughness and feel no pain.
This would leave me with 2 squads to assault the 30 man unit, and 2 mounted squads to assault the 20 mn squad further away, however the wracks failed their pinning test.  Because the wrack raider went full speed the trueborn venom's wouldn't have been in range even if they had grisly trophies, and I didn't roll the exact 9 (1 in 9 chance) that would have meant a squad leader would have made a difference.  I'm coming the conclusion that I'll just have to suck it up when I fail pinning tests, and rather than spend money to help I should just buy more models and guns.

With only 2 raiders downed I think I got off lightly.

Turn 2 I pushed both wyches into the 30 man squad, and the incubi went on their own into the 20 man squad (they were down to 15 men plus the psyker and I calculated the incubi should do about 9 kills). All the remaining vehicles (including the small unit of wracks and the 2 trueborn units) else stayed in the centre of the board (they at least moved slightly to ensure they would require 4+ to hit in combat).

The wyches fleeted to get right next to the 30 man guard blob.  I didn't want to fire at them in case it meant that a bad difficult terrain role from the wyches with the haemonoculus meant they did not make combat.  The incubi moved so that they would only reach the two guard models out of terrain (meaning they didn't need to risk a difficult terrain test).

Shooting saw me pick the right targets, with all the lances making sure the command squad (apart from the commander who was hidden out of line of sight) were dead.  The heavy weapon team was also finished off.

In combat the commassair and all three sergaents in the 30 man blob could move against the the wyches with feel no pain.  It was a bit tense, but they wyches eventually broke the blob after 4 turns of combat.  The incubi did not fair too well as there was still 3 power weapons in the squad of 20 (2 sergaents and the psyker).  I really should have allocated some razorwing love (ie. large template missiles) on turn 1 :)

While these combat were going on the guard 50 man blob unit came on from reserve, and one of the platoon hqs.  The platoon hq hid in the ruin in the top left hand corner, and the 50 man blob spread out along the middle 20 inches of his side of the table, spread evenly because the wracks had 2 liquifier guns.
I think this was a mistake by my opponent, he should have moved more agressively forwards.  What he did do was first fire grenade launchers at a vehicle, and then the following turn fire at another vehicle with the addition of 2 heavy weapons bringing down a raider.

Just before the wyches finished off the 30 man blob the rough riders came on from reserve amd charged a ravager that I had carelesly left on his half of the board.  A good fleet roll and they charged and wreaked it.  With nothing much else to fire on (the 50 man blob squd through cover or the orgyrns hidding in the top right hand corner ruin) all my lances and splinter cannons turned on them and killed them in a turn.

When the 30 man blob squad was finished the pain token was given to the wyches without feel no pain.  The squad that started with the haemonoculus moved towards the incubi combat and helped them finish off the last of the squad, however there was only 1 incubi and  few wyches left, who were seem off by orgyrn shooting nd combat the following turn.  The imperial commaneder risked coming out of cover to kill the incubi and then consolidated back behind line of sight blocking terrain.

The other wych squad got on my last remaining raider and moved towards the ratling snipers in the ruin in the bottom right hand quadrant.  In the last turn they hopped off and charged the ratlings, easily killing them all.

In the centre the orgryns (after killing the wyches) moved accross and assaulted the wracks.  The wracks lost combat but held for the game to end.  However with the small wrack unit on a borrowed venom sitting on the middle objective the orgryns would have needed another couple of turns to force me off the middle objective (particularly s in the mission rules it stated that only troops could contest objectives.

In the end I hadn't killed many kill points; 2 blob squads (50 men), the ratlings, the heavy weapon team, the primis psyker, and had lost a lot; haemy, incubi, wych squad , 3 raiders, venom & ravager, however I had managed to keep the secondary objective for a 10-5 loss.

With 2 big wins in my first 2 games I was able to win the tournament on the victory point tie break :)  Winning the secondary objective in my 3rd game was essential to winning the tournament.

Rathstar

Life stirs...

As the 2011 tournament season draws to a close for me I'm busy assembling necron barges. It was to go to a tournament this weekend, but because of other priorities I don't think I'm going to make it.

So what have I been up to since my last post. I've completed my battle report for the Battle for Planet OG tournament I went to. It's on my tablet waiting to be transfered to my PC and will be posted this weekend.

I've also attended 3 tournaments, Starsmash in Reading, M.A.D. at Triple Helix & Warfare in Reading. My posting schedule should return to normal now, so overviews of my performance and learning with my Dark Eldar will be forthcoming along with my initial games with my necron army (so far they have drawn against a Lysander led marine army).

Until next time...

Rathstar

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Time to be Ruthless - Tournament Live Blogging

By the time this is posted I will well on my way to the Battle for Planet OG - Part II tournament.

I've been playing with my Dark Eldar using slightly different lists, but always with the same core.  In every game (at 1500 points or higher) I have played for the last 4-5 months there has always been:

A cheap HQ Haemonoculus
2 units of trueborn in venoms
A small incubi unit in a transport (which has varied)
2 ravagers
2 Wych units in raiders
A Large Wrack unit in a raider
A small unit of Wracks in a venom

Apart from the incubi I would consider these units in my list as manditory, they all almost always perfrom, and is the core around which I tweak the final list.

After months of playtesting, it's now time to take it up a gear.  Lets be ruthless, and try to use the army to it's fullest, no more silly mistakes; forgetting to roll for combat drugs, being too conservative, or making deployment errors.  As I head towards what I consider the most competitive local tournament of the year (Starsmash next week) and I need to up my game to do the army justice.

I'll be posting in the comments how I do in this tournament throughout the day, but feel free to comment between my posts.  Here's the list I'm taking:

Battle for Planet OG - Part II, 1500 Point Dark Eldar List

Haemonculus Nalix Soulseer - 55
with Venom Blade

6 Incubi - 132
in Raider with Dark Lance - 60
3 Trueborn with 3 Blasters - 81
in Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons - 65
3 Trueborn with 3 Blasters - 81
in Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons - 65

10 Wracks with 2 Liquifier Guns - 120
in Raider with Dark Lance - 60
9 Wyches incl. Hekatrix with Venom Blade - 105
in Raider with Dark Lance - 60
9 Wyches incl. Hekatrix with Venom Blade - 105
in Raider with Dark Lance - 60
3 Wracks - 30
in Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons - 65

Ravager with 3 Dark Lances - 105
Ravager with 3 Dark Lances - 105
Razorwing Jetfighter with 2 Dark Lances - 145

Total: 1499 Pts
Time will tell if I will regreat removing the grisly trophies that were usually on the trueborn's venoms, or not including the shock prows that will be on the ravagers for my next tournament next week.  At the end of the day these small changes will nothing compared to me playing well or not as the case maybe.  I know the army can do well, now I need to play it to let it's power shine through.

Here's a link to the forum thread showing the tournament rules, let me know what you think of the custom missions and my chances.

Rathstar

NB: After deleting an old draft it turns out that this, rather than my previous post, is my 100th post.  Hope that's a good omen :)

[40k] August Review

 Intro

After a quiet July following the two tournaments in June, hobby activity has picked up.  A bit later than I wished, here's what I've been up to:

Painting / Modelling

I assembled, magatied, and painted up a razorwing jetfighter. The razorwing is not finished; I need to finish the jems, and do more highlighting on the hull, but the razorwing is in a good enough state to take to tournaments.

I also converted and painted up 3 beastmasters, and painted up a 6th reaver to make my unit legal. I now want to finish fixing up a second unit of jetbikes I have, and paint up a further 3 beastmasters and some flying reapers (to represent razorwing flocks) so I have more options when building army lists.

However before that I am painting a 6th incubi (so I don't have to use my old dracon as an incubi). Also I picked up 2 old incubi with blasters, so I want to paint them up so I have the option of using 2 units of 4 (rather than my current units of 3) trueborn with blasters. Hopefully if I pick up one more old incubi with a blaster, so I can try out the option of 3 units of 3 trueborn.

Gaming

Gaming has picked up as well, spurred on by a tournament. I went to the 10th Annual 40k Online (forum) tournament. I won't give away where I came yet (as I'm going to post quick battle reports / summaries later, however I did get to try out the three units I finished painting.

Preparing for the tournament I also got in a game against Imperial Guard, and I had a taste of my own medicine and played my mate's Dark Eldar with my Space Wolves. All these games have given my valueable experience, as I head into my next two tournaments, and decide on my list for a 1800 point tournment in October.

The next two tournaments for me are 1500 points, and out of the beastmasters, reavers & razorwing jetfighter, only the razorwing has made the cut at the reduced points value. I felt that I couldn't afford both the incubi and the beastmasters in the lower points value, and the incubi (although more fragile with their smaller numbers and slower once their transport is blown up) got the nod, because of their reliablility to kill MEQs. I really liked the reavers AP1 guns, but they seemed so hit or miss, as they have to get in so close, and they are more fragile than last edition now that they only have a 5+ save. After they slow down to get the first shot with the heat lances it seems if they enemy wants to kill them it's not too hard. Both the beastmasters and reavers will get further try outs in 1750+ point games, but I'm staying with the tried and tested for my next 8 tournament games and my list is not much changed from my Rapid Strike tournament list.

I posted my draft list in my last post here. For this weekend's 1-day tournament in London I submitted the list posted. However a helpful comment by speedfreak in this post mentioned shock prows. I had a few situations come up where being able to tank shock would have been nice. speedfreak suggested losing 2 wyches to give my 4 raiders shock prow. I really didn't want to reduce my fragile troops choices anymore, so i considered losing one incubi and mounting them in a venom (which would allow the 3 remaining raiders to all have shock prows). In the end I compromised (and for my Starsmash tournament list) I lost one wych (from the unit the haemonoculus would join) to put shock prows on my two ravagers. The raiders tend to be going agressively forwards and tend to be shot down by the end of the game, while normally one ravager survives to the end, making them perfect for late game contesting, which is what I think I need more than raming.

I'm behind on battle reports (so my mate Gav will moan at me again), but I will try to post up, more importantly, my learnings with shorter battle summaries for the old tournaments I haven't reported yet.

Other Hobby news

Lots has been happening in the hobby and blog world. The Sisters of Battle codex was split over the last two issues of White Dwarf. After being miffed with buying White Dwarf for the blood angels codex I haven't bought the issues, and I'm waiting till it's free download from the GW website. However the feeling from the hobby community is that is a lacklustre update. My main concern was that the basic Sister are 12 pts, and that it was commented that the standard sisters troop choice would be 10 sisters, 2 special weapon, with a sister superiour in a rhino costing around 180 points. That seems a bit much when they are still T3. Maybe this comes from being spoilt with a cost effective MEQ troops choice in my Space Wolves Grey Hunters. 10 Grey Hunters with 2 meltaguns in a rhino starts out at 190 pts, swapping one of the meltagun armed grey hunters for a wof guard with a combi melta only increased the cost to 198, with the squad having the options to include further useful upgrades, such as powerfists, mark of the wolfen, standards the sisters seem a bit expensive for how good they are.  Exorcists are still the same, so expect competitive armies to have 2 or 3, and target them early.  Multiple shot AP1 weapons are awesome tank killers.

NOVA has been and gone. For those not in the know this a a very large American tournament. This year it had 216 40k competitors. I was fortunate to catch the live coverage of the final game where Space Wolves were victorious over Grey Knights. Now that the tournament is finished there is lots of number cruching and analysis trying to say where the meta game is at, and what are the best codexs. This is always subjective as there are so many ther factors involved, and after all a 40k has a random factor in the form of dice. Initial thoughts are that not much as changed; Space Wolves, Blood Angels and Guard are still doing well (but Guard were hampered by more terrain on the boards). These armies were joined by Grey Knights and Dark Eldar. Many of the older codex showed they could still compete, but found it hard to consistently win against the top tier armies when they were commanded by good generals. However whatever I or anyone else says it is all subjectve and all someone can do is try to improve with the army they have. Build a efficient list with the models you have, but try to play as much as possible, because that's one of the best ways to improve.


For those interested in my tournament travels, my next few tournaments are (pop over and say hi if you see my Dark Eldar):
Battle for Planet OG Part II - London - 10th September
Starsmash - Reading - 17th & 18th Septemeber
Mutually Assured Destruction - Westbury - 22nd October
Warfare - Reading - 19th & 20th November

Now I must get back to planning the route to the tournament I'm attending tomorrow morning.  The first round draw has been made and I'm against Choas Space Marines for game one.  The tournament is a very small one (10 players) and has 70% MEQ, and three of what I would call top tier armies; Imperial Guard (commanded by the previous winner) and two Blood Angels armies, however a mid tier army commanded by a good opponent can be much more dangerous, so I must not be complacent (I have lost too many games where on paper I should win).

Going into the tournament I'm hoping for 2 wins and a loss, with one of the wins being a tabling.  You never know I my fluke 3 wins.  However the tournament missions have secondary objectives.  In one mission the secondary mission is almost guanteed a draw, and the other two are kill points.  Out of the 45 tournament points available 15 points are for winning the secondary objecives, so if I lose the kill point objectves and draw the other secondary mission I will have dropped 13 points.  Last year the winner only dropped 3 points.  Therefore to win I will have to win all three games, and probably table one of my opponents where kill points is the secondary objective.  A tall order, but I'll try my best :)

Playing 3 games this week (as tournament practice) and work being busy has had a toll on blog posting, and the next week will likely be the same, with this tournament being the first of 8 tournament games in 9 days, not to mention the games I will try to get in next week in preparation for the 2 day tournament next weekend. More frequent posting will continue after next week.

I'll post my progress on a post that will be publish tomorrow morning.  First post tournament impressions will be posted as a travel home (not much else I can do on the 1hr20min return journey on the train :)

Rathstar

PS. This happens to be my 100th post, a nice milestone after a year and a half.  Thanks to all those who read and comment on my blog.

A Week of Reflection

[It looks so good, it has to be used, alas 3rd ravager you have been replaced]

Hi,

As is normally best, after my last tournament I took a little break from gaming, and spent some great time with family over the bank holiday weekend.  It's always nice to have a bit of Gaming / Real Life balance :) - at least if you want to stay with your girlfiend/fiancee/wife.

However it's hasn't stopped me relfecting on how my Dark Eldar and Space Wolf lists should evolve.

My first impression coming away from my last tournament was that my Dark Eldar needed more anti-tank, however upon reflection I think I can blame a bit of my bad tank killing on a poor luck, however there were some mistakes I made, chiefly being too aggressive with my trueborn and getting them killed too quickly.  I must endevour to keep them on their venom and resist the urge to disembark them turn one to get 6 more lance shots at enemy vehicles.

Out of the three units I was trying out (beastmasters, reavers & a razorwing) only the razorwing seemed reliable, mainly because I tried to off load it's missile payload as soon as possible.  Both the beastmasters and reavers showed their great potential.  The beastmasters killing a grey knight librarian and held up a grey dreadnaught in combat by ripping it's powerfist off, while the reavers increasing the chance of a pentration hit killing a holofield-ed fire prism from 1 in 9 to 1 in 4.

[My army in action in their last tournament, battle reports coming...]

I have to send in my army list for my next two tournaments this week (which are the lower size of 1500 pts), and it hard to include either reavers of beastmasters.  It seems too risky to drop to 3 troop choices, or remove the reliable trueborn to put reavers in, or beastmasters instead of incubi.  Reavers and Beastmasters seem like units that support th more reliable parts of the army, and therefore are more suited to larger games.  However I still need more experience with both these units so I will continue to playtest them, but they don't quite make the smaller 1500 point lists.  Beastmasters are close to covering for incubi, but I like the incubi ability to just shread MEQ (or at least dent them badly), while a failure to roll 6's to wound can see the beastmasters do nothing and bounce.  Although the beastmasters are better against light infantry I think wyches, wracks, splinter cannons and even razorwing missiles have this covered.

Role Reversal Gaming

Tonight I played my mate who was trying out Dark Eldar and I was playing with my Space Wolves.  It was an interesting experience being on the receiving end of venoms, trueborn and lances.

I was trying out putting slightly more heavier mech in my list, hoping to draw firepower away from my light mech transports.  In went a predator for a long fang squad, and a walking grey hunter unit gained a drop pod.  Out went fragile landspeeders for cheap razorback transports.

A surreal feeling was looking at my deployment and thinking it resembled an imperial guard parking lot:

[the las/plas razorbacks were actually representing heavy bolter razorbacks, while I try and source heavy bolter turrets from ebay]

My mate was trying an army of threes, three troop choices of wyches, ravagers, trueborn, venoms, raiders, haemonoculus :) His list was:

3 Haemonoculus with Liquifier guns and Venom Blades
3 units of 9 Wyches, including Hexatrix with Agoniser in Raiders
3 units of 3 trueborn with 3 blasters in venoms
3 units of 3 reavers with a heat lance each
3 ravagers with 3 dark lances

One of the things that shocked me playing against the Dark Eldar was how annoying liquifier guns were.  It has definitely made me reconsider putting some back in my list (I was almost about to drop them to save points).

The game ended a bloody draw on turn 6 with us each having one objective each.  I liked most things in my list, but I was not impressed with the single drop pod.  A scatter left the unit a bit to far away from the rest of my army to get any support, so I may lose it to bring the squad back to full size.  The drop pod also did not draw much firepower in the game, because it just isn't a threat once it's landed, unless it's contesting an objective.  I'll have to make do with 8 vehicles.  2 spare razorbacks plus a dread and a predator will hopefully give the rhinos more chance to survive to bring the aggressive grey hunters into mid table to dominate the battlefield.

My current space wolf list can be found here, and the current Dark Eldar list I'm considering for my next two tournament is below.  Feel free to comment on either list ot anything else from your experiences being on the receiving end of trueborn filled venoms or your stories or rubber lance syndrome :)

Rathstar

Draft 1500 Point Dark Eldar List

Haemonculus Nalix Soulseer - 55
with Venom Blade

6 Incubi - 132
in Raider with Dark Lance - 60
3 Trueborn with 3 Blasters - 81
in Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons - 65
3 Trueborn with 3 Blasters - 81
in Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons - 65

10 Wracks with 2 Liquifier Guns - 120
in Raider with Dark Lance - 60
9 Wyches incl. Hekatrix with Venom Blade - 105
in Raider with Dark Lance - 60
9 Wyches incl. Hekatrix with Venom Blade - 105
in Raider with Dark Lance - 60
3 Wracks - 30
in Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons - 65

Ravager with 3 Dark Lances - 105
Ravager with 3 Dark Lances - 105
Razorwing Jetfighter with 2 Dark Lances - 145

Total: 1499 Pts

One change I'm giving serious thought to is reducing the incubi to 5, losing the liquifier guns and losing a couple of the troop models to up the trueborn to units of 4, all with blasters (bringing my lance total up to 20).

More Souls Havested :)

x

Hi,

A quick update to say I'm back from the 40k Online Tournament.

It was a great day, and I enjoyed 4 good games, while getting valuable experience using the new units I'd added to my army list (razorwing, beastmasters & reavers).

I faced Mech Eldar, Paladin Grey Knights, Mech Eldar & Choas.

Battle reports and my thoughts on my army performance will follow over the next couple of weeks, starting mid this week.

Rathstar