Hm.......Should I even go into this route for my Dark Eldar?

While I was making several 1999+ 1 lists, I wondered what happened if I just decide to just go for the shooty route? What if I eschew close combat entirely? With that I made this list over here.  It is somewhat boring to look at, but I believe it could also be quite a nasty list. Only problem with this list is that there is no assaulting elements and it would find some difficulty in breaking open some infantry blobs. I would like to call this my Gangland shooting list.

Build this list using the Battlescribe program, which is a very nice app to use. Not to mention that it is also free as compared to the Army Builder program.



+ HQ + (150pts)
* Duke Sliscus the Serpent (150pts)
        (Contraband, Fleet, Independent Character, Low Orbit Raid, Night Vision, Power from Pain,
         The Serpent's Venom)
         Blast Pistol, Combat drugs (Combat Drugs), Ghostplate Armour, Plasma Grenades,
         Shadowfield, The Serpent's Bite

+ Elites + (579pts)
* Kabalite Trueborn (233pts)
        * Raider (70pts)
            Nightshield (10pts)
        * 9x Trueborn (163pts)
            (Fleet, Night Vision, Power from Pain)
            7x Shardcarbine (35pts), 2x Splinter Cannon (20pts)

* Kabalite Trueborn (173pts)
        * 4x Trueborn (108pts)
            (Fleet, Night Vision, Power from Pain)
            4x Blaster (60pts)
        * Venom (65pts)
            Flickerfield, Splinter Cannon (10pts)

* Kabalite Trueborn (173pts)
        * 4x Trueborn (108pts)
            (Fleet, Night Vision, Power from Pain)
            4x Blaster (60pts)
        * Venom (65pts)
            Flickerfield, Splinter Cannon (10pts)

+ Troops + (830pts)
* Kabalite Warriors (130pts)
        * Raider (70pts)
            Dark Lance, Nightshield (10pts)
        * 5x Warriors (60pts)
            (Fleet, Night Vision, Power from Pain)
            Blaster (15pts), 4x Splinter Rifle

* Kabalite Warriors (130pts)
        * Raider (70pts)
            Dark Lance, Nightshield (10pts)
        * 5x Warriors (60pts)
            (Fleet, Night Vision, Power from Pain)
            Blaster (15pts), 4x Splinter Rifle

* Kabalite Warriors (160pts)
        * Raider (70pts)
            Dark Lance, Splinter Racks (10pts)
        * 10x Warriors (90pts)
            (Fleet, Night Vision, Power from Pain)
            10x Splinter Rifle

* Kabalite Warriors (160pts)
        * Raider (70pts)
            Dark Lance, Splinter Racks (10pts)
        * 10x Warriors (90pts)
            (Fleet, Night Vision, Power from Pain)
            10x Splinter Rifle

* Kabalite Warriors (125pts)
        * Venom (65pts)
            Flickerfield, Splinter Cannon (10pts)
        * 5x Warriors (60pts)
            (Fleet, Night Vision, Power from Pain)
            Blaster (15pts), 4x Splinter Rifle

* Kabalite Warriors (125pts)
        * Venom (65pts)
            Flickerfield, Splinter Cannon (10pts)
        * 5x Warriors (60pts)
            (Fleet, Night Vision, Power from Pain)
            Blaster (15pts), 4x Splinter Rifle

+ Heavy Support + (425pts)
* Ravager (115pts)
        (Aerial Assault, Night Vision)
        Dark Lance, Dark Lance, Dark Lance, Nightshield (10pts)

* Ravager (115pts)
        (Aerial Assault, Night Vision)
        Dark Lance, Dark Lance, Dark Lance, Nightshield (10pts)

* Voidraven Bomber (195pts)
        (Aerial Assault, Deep Strike, Night Vision, Supersonic)
        Flickerfield (10pts), Shatterfield Missile (10pts), Shatterfield Missile (10pts), Shatterfield Missile
        (10pts), Shatterfield Missile (10pts), 2x Void Lance, Void Mine

Dark Eldar vs Orks 2k - A Big Tutorial Game

Vespera is finally out from the restoration sarcophagus and is now quite literally bloodthirsty. She can not wait to get into the next raid and slaughter as much as she could. To her surprise her Archdracon did not decide on staging a coup to take on her Kabal, and he kept his word. However as she soon discover there is also another reason why the Kabal is not taken over by her Archdracon; Her father.

"Oh hello my dear, finally out of Haemonculi coven? I hoped that you are not bored out of your skull." Her father is sitting in her throne room knitting some kind of clothing from the muscle fiber of a still-living and screaming victim chained onto a rack. As Vespera watches on, she noticed that his handmaidens are slowly flaying the skin and slowly unravelling the muscles in order for the old Archon to use a continuous strand of muscle to knit the clothing. And then her sight shifted and to her chagrin, she noticed her brother looking at himself on a hand-held mirror.

"Why is he here?" Vespera asked her father. It was then that her father stopped the knitting and looked upon them with glee. Vespera's inner thoughts are now flashing a lot of red flags, but she kept her poise and walked gracefully towards her relatives.

"While you were out cold,I managed to get our hands upon some fascinating creatures mainly in the form of a flock of Ghosthawks. They are fine specimens those creatures.....but they do need to get out from the webway from time to time to have a nice little walk. Apparently there is something about Commorragh that agitates them." Aethandir kept his hand-held mirror and held out his hand. Soon enough an ethereal mist landed upon his hands, and materialized itself into a vaguely avian-like being. Vespera could see why the men wanted to keep these creatures as they are truly marvelous to look at.

"Perhaps it is your face that is the cause of their agitation." But then suddenly several loud primal roars resonate in the air* and Vespera realized that she is now surrounded by five creatures, each almost as tall as she is but significantly large in size. The creatures appear have a generally canid body and similar body structure but each one has a mutation of sorts. Some had horns while others have serpentine-like mouths snapping where horns are located upon the creature. At the very least, each animal have their own unique quirk that allow a person to notice the difference between the creatures. Each of the creatures are now snarling at Vespera and indeed was about to attack Vespera until a sharp whistle from her brother caused the creatures to stop.

"Hush now, quiet now. She means me no harm....at least for now." The creatures then walked slowly towards her brother and lingered around him like kittens. Vespera's mind could not even comprehend how those things snuck up to her like that. Her senses are unnaturally sharp, and those thing just made her feel like a true prey.

"What.... in Commorragh are those?!" Vespera points at the creatures, trying to keep her composure. In return, the creatures snarled at her ferociously*. Vespera is quite intimidated by these creatures.

"Oh these? These are some creatures that I asked the haemonculi to create for me for my personal amusement....that is the way I punish those who tried to assassinate me. I just love to give them a scent and let them hunt down my Hellions by themselves. but perhaps they are doing their job too well for now I am also out of traitors to feed them. So they need to take a walk as well."

"So...you want to join me on my raid so that you could have your animals take a walk?" Vespera looked at her father with disapproval, but he looked at her and smiled.

"Well, there is no harm playing with your brother right?"

*Replicate video 5 times and play them at the same time.

Well, here is another battle report from me (not the short summaries) and this time I am bringing what I call the 'wincest team' on the table. I actually came to the LGS expecting a league match, but instead my opponent is not present for some reason and thus I have to arrange a match for another day. But on the other hand, I managed to play with this kid who wanted to try out his 2000 pts list and wanted to face a tough Dark Eldar list. I figured that since I have nothing to lose I might as well just get into it. But then unfortunately, as we are deploying our stuff I think that I may have to club the seal or that he may be the most cunning kid I ever known (usually the former, rarely the latter).

Here's my list;

HQ
1. Archon (Warlord)
Agoniser
Venom Blade
Haywire Grenade
Combat Drugs
Shadowfield

Total pts: 130 pts

2. Baron Sathonyx
Custom Skyboard
Hellglaive
Splinter Pistol
Phantasm Grenade Launcher
Shadowfield

total pts: 105 pts

Elites
1. Kabalite Trueborn Squad
4 x Kabalite Trueborn with Blaster
Venom with 2 Splinter Cannon

Total pts: 173 pts

2. Kabalite Trueborn Squad
4 x Kabalite Trueborn with Blaster
Venom with 2 Splinter Cannon

Total pts: 173 pts

Troops
1. Kabalite Warriors Squad
4 x Kabalite Warriors
1 x Kabalite with Blaster
Venom with 2 Splinter Cannon

Total pts: 125 pts

2. Kabalite Warriors Squad
4 x Kabalite Warriors
1 x Kabalite with Blaster
Venom with 2 Splinter Cannon

Total pts: 125 pts

3. Kabalite Warriors Squad
4 x Kabalite Warriors
1 x Kabalite with Blaster
Raider with Nighshields

Total pts: 130 pts

4. Kabalite Warriors Squad
4 x Kabalite Warriors
1 x Kabalite with Blaster
Raider with Nighshields

Total pts: 130 pts

5. Wyches
7 x Wyches with Haywire Grenades
1 x Hekatrix with Venom Blade and Haywire grenades
Raider with Nighshields

Total pts: 181 pts

6. Wyches
7 x Wyches with Haywire Grenades
1 x Hekatrix with Venom Blade and Haywire grenades
Raider with Nighshields

Total pts: 181 pts

Fast Attack
1. Beastmaster Pack
2 x Beasmaters
1 x Beastmaster with Venom Blade
5 x Khymeara
4 x Razorwing Flock

Total pts: 161

Heavy Support
1. Ravager
3 x Dark Lances
Nightshields

Total pts: 115 pts

2. Ravager
3 x Dark Lances
Nightshields

Total pts: 115 pts

3. Razorwing Fighter
4 x Monoscythe Missiles
2 x Dark lances
1 x Twin-linked Splinter rifle
Flickerfield

Total pts: 155 pts

As for his list;

Ork Warboss with Mega Armour (warlord)
Big Mek with KFF
6 tabnkbustas
4 Biker Nobs
5 Lootas
5 Nobs on foot
3 Mega Armoured Nobs (troops)
2 squads of Gretchins (10 each)
3 Deffkoptas with twinlinked rokkits
10 Boyz in a Trukk
5 Stormboyz
Boomwagon
Battlewagon with a Killkannon, 4 Rokkits and a big shoota

The kid is using that double FOC thing. That's why boys and girls, that one should be careful when you agree to a 2000 pts game these days.

As you can see this is our table;



Lots of ruins, and was designed for the league games. I was supposed to play on this table too apparently. The deployment style that we rolled up is one of the new deployment styles where we deployed at the short table edges instead of the long table edge. The mission is the good o' Capture and Control (one objective each).

We both rolled for our warlord traits and here is what we got

Warboss: His warlord and anything within 12" of his warlord gets +1 to their charging roll. Yikes!
Vespera: Outflanking units have Acute senses while warlord is still alive. Bollocks.....I got nothing of that sort.

I then rolled for my drugs and I got +1 Strength. This would definitely help me against the bikers and the Warboss.

He won the rolls for choosing table sides and objectives, so he deploys first. His Stormboyz are in reserve, while my Razorwing fighter is in reserve.

And..... here is what he did;


And here's what I did;


I will definitely say that this is perhaps my most beautiful deployment ever.  

We then proceed to roll to see if there is nightfighting, and alas there is no nightfighting.

P.S: Btw, the objectives are in the center of the buildings where the majority of our forces are deployed.

I attempt to seize the initiative, but I failed. With that the game begins.

Turn1
As Vespera enters into realspace, she noticed that her brother is being led by his pets to the building and she could only wonder what have they found. But soon enough before she could even ask him about what is going on several large rounds landed around the ground and if it were not for the nightshields her ship would have been vapourized. Oh well, she could focus instead on the battle. Before long, her forces had acquired targets and are now systematically culling them.

"Milady, it appears that the Orks are infesting this place."

Orks


He moved a number of his unit before he went on to the shooting phase. To my opponent's chagrin, his lootas are unable to shoot at my Raider as a result of that final 6" of the loota being severed by the Nightshield upgrade.

Dark Eldar



Without further delay, I spread my forces out and aimed my Venoms at the Biker Nobs and most of my raiders and ravagers moved to get a clear line of sight towards the closest target that they could see; the Looted Wagon.

I decided to let the beastmaster pack and the Baron to stay in the runs and guard it for a while until one of my Kabalites get kicked out of their vehicle. At the meantime, they managed to trigger the mysterious objective , revealing its nature as a Skyfire Nexus.

With relative ease, I managed to kill the Looted Wagon and also kill 3 of the Biker Nobs. Unfortunately for me they held their ground.

Turn 2
"What is it , what is it?" Aethandir voiced out to his pets. The loud booming primal bark continued on and as Aethandir looked on, he could see that it is an intact Imperial Skyfire Nexus. A fine specimen indeed, nonetheless his pets are not the kinds that will be swayed by some shiny object. Then suddenly several of the ghosthawks shriek and swooped down avoiding some of the large canids and flew towards Aethandir carrying a piece of green flesh.

"Ah.....so all of you wanted a piece of Ork huh?" The calmer pur of the hounds and the whistling sounds of the ghosthawks only served to enforce the point on Aethandir. Oh alright, let us move. But not before I put this webway portal to send this artifact back...

********

Meanwhile, Vespera proceed to move on along the lines and was poised to hunt the warboss all the while listening to all the usual explosions whens suddenly that primal roar echoed in her ears again. She turned around and as she watched, the beasts lept and flew from the flaming explosions into the horde of boyz and started ripping them apart. The boyz immediately broke and are escaping but the creatures are merciless. Before long, they are now gnawing on their flesh and bones. Vespera suddenly had a fleeting thought that she was glad that she is not the target of those creatures.

Orks

He rolled for the Stormboyz and then....nothing happened. No Stormies this turn.

Well, he decided to move his Deffkoptas down the long table edge and the battlewagon and the Nobs went ahead and moved down in the trails of the deffkopta as well. The Biker Nob proceed to move closer to the Raider carrying Vespera while his trukk disgorged the boyz.

In the shooting phase, his lootas managed to down one of my Raiders, and his boyz and trukk managed to shoot down one of the Trueborn Venoms. He attempted to assault  Vespera's Raider with his biker Nob and also the Trueborns with his boyz, but he is unable to reach either one of them. Vespera's squad fired an overwatch towards the biker nob and he got a wound.

Dark Eldar




I rolled for my Razorwing but it did not come in.

The Kabalites Warriors who lost the transport immediately ran back to the objective. Everything else? FORWARD! One of my Wych squads decide to disembark with the intent of killing that Biker Nob.

In my shooting phase, Vespera's Raider turboboosted towards the ork "Fortress" while my forces gun down anything that is in sight. The resulting firefest saw that the battlewagon lost a hull point, the Tankbustas and Lootas getting wiped out, and half of the boyz died from the exploding trukk.

My Wyches assaulted the lone Biker Nob while the beastmaster pack charged the Boyz. Thanks to overwatch, one of the wyches got gunned down. The result of both assaults are as clear as night and day and my bunch of assaulters consolidated.







However......just as we are about to start turn 3........his mom came. Apparently he needs to go. D'oh! So with that we ended our game there and then and thanks to the First Blood that I have gotten I won by one VP.


Post-Game and Afterthought
The raid turned out to be success, and many Ork slaves were caught. Indeed, Vespera managed to capture the Warboss alive and the Warboss is now captive in her private gym, for her to spar on a daily basis (with obvious restrictions). But what actually caught her by surprise is how her brother actually is very kind to his beast entourage. It has even gone to the point of him play-wrestling with his big creature-things and singing along with his ghosthawks. They look very very domesticated save for the fact that Vespera have seen it firsthand how these things make Orks run like scared little humans. She then made a mental note to herself; never let those things near her favoured human slaves.

Speaking of which, she will have to give them new dresses and toys and play with them now.......


Okay, I will honestly say this; this definitely feels like seal-clubbing on so many levels. I thought that the kid would be bringing some nasty ork list or something and prepared myself instinctively against the nastiness of Orks, but then as he was deploying I realized that this is a kid we are talking about here. He got not clue about a tough Dark Eldar list, and I did a 'Shock and Awe' to his mind like how the US did the same to Iraq. And from the look of his list it looks like he cobbled it up from a bunch of Black reach stuff and some other random models.

But nonetheless, as we played the game we talked and I taught him some aspects of the game (he is somewhat familiar with 5th which made it easier) and some tricks as well. I also told him that my lances can kill his battlewagon silly as well and advised that he should be more careful about the tank when facing against Dark Eldar. So in the end, at least he is not thinking that I am enjoying clubbing him like a seal but instead as a person who also wants to try and let him win.

In more ways than one, this reminds me of my first time playing 40k during 4th edition, but instead of people curbstomping me without telling me the rules proper I went on ahead and taught the kid a number of things that seal-clubbers will not do. Not sure if I can remove the mental trauma of a Dark Eldar shooting phase out of his mind though, as I am unable to do so even with the veterans of the game.

P.S: Just remembered The tankbustasonce  The DAr told me about it and looking at my own pics.They failed to shoot anything before I killed them hence why I totally forgotten to write about them. -__

Baron + Archon list 2000 pts

As I played with my list a little more with 6th edition, I realized that I actually do need some form of assault elements to storm the castle if I am forced to. Despite the random nature of assaults and also the overwatch rules, the fact still remains that close combat is actually more akin to a high-risk, high-reward ploy. 

So with that this list is created.

HQ

1. Archon

Agoniser

Venom Blade

Haywire Grenade

Combat Drugs

Shadowfield

Total pts: 130 pts

2. Baron Sathonyx

Custom Skyboard

Hellglaive

Splinter Pistol

Phantasm Grenade Launcher

Shadowfield

total pts: 105 pts

Elites

1. Kabalite Trueborn Squad

4 x Kabalite Trueborn with Blaster

Venom with 2 Splinter Cannon

Total pts: 173 pts

2. Kabalite Trueborn Squad

4 x Kabalite Trueborn with Blaster

Venom with 2 Splinter Cannon

Total pts: 173 pts

Troops

1. Kabalite Warriors Squad

4 x Kabalite Warriors

1 x Kabalite with Blaster

Venom with 2 Splinter Cannon

Total pts: 125 pts

2. Kabalite Warriors Squad

4 x Kabalite Warriors

1 x Kabalite with Blaster

Venom with 2 Splinter Cannon

Total pts: 125 pts

3. Kabalite Warriors Squad

4 x Kabalite Warriors

1 x Kabalite with Blaster

Raider with Nighshields

Total pts: 130 pts

4. Kabalite Warriors Squad

4 x Kabalite Warriors

1 x Kabalite with Blaster

Raider with Nighshields

Total pts: 130 pts

5. Wyches

7 x Wyches with Haywire Grenades

1 x Hekatrix with Venom Blade and Haywire grenades

Raider with Nighshields

Total pts: 181 pts

6. Wyches

7 x Wyches with Haywire Grenades

1 x Hekatrix with Venom Blade and Haywire grenades

Raider with Nighshields

Total pts: 181 pts

Fast Attack

1. Beastmaster Pack

2 x Beasmaters

1 x Beastmaster with Venom Blade

5 x Khymeara

4 x Razorwing Flock

Total pts: 161

Heavy Support

1. Ravager

3 x Dark Lances

Nightshields

Total pts: 115 pts

2. Ravager

3 x Dark Lances

Nightshields

Total pts: 115 pts

3. Razorwing Fighter

4 x Monoscythe Missiles

2 x Dark lances

1 x Twin-linked Splinter rifle

Flickerfield

Total pts: 155 pts

From the playtesting, I can say that the list works quite well. Only thing that I could think of that would make this list better would be to put in more flyers....but at the same time the Ravagers do help me crack a lot of stuff at range. Not sure what to do.

Perhaps with more playtesting would I get the answer.