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Raid on Naukratia: Dark Eldar vs Space Marines (last battle of 5th)

Started by Scyrex Deledras, July 05, 2012, 04:50:12 PM

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Scyrex Deledras

Hey everyone. I realize I'm posting this...well...several days later than I should have, ideally, but all the same...here is my farewell to 5th edition. Enjoy!


A few weeks from now, the humans would remember that the doom of Naukratia came in shrieking on the wind.

Beneath his stormcloud-grey helm, Khaeron grinned a little at the thought as he clutched the barbed rails of the Raider, the  familiar shriek of the craft

Scyrex Deledras

TURN 2

The next turn began with my Razorwing arriving...right when I didn't want it to. I had been hoping that there would be some exposed infantry for it to missile to death by this point, but as this was not the case, I instead sent it on tank-killing duty. For some reason, though, instead of having it hover near the back of my lines, I zoomed it up almost directly below the Land Raider...for...some reason, right into potential multi-melta range. I think I had underestimated the range of 36 inches

Scyrex Deledras

TURN 5

With the game potentially over this turn, I moved to disembark my Warriors from the bastion to go grab my objective...until my opponent reminded me that the bastion had only one exit, which would put them far away from my objective...right in front of the Sternguard. Uh oh. At this point, I figured that I wouldn't be holding onto my objective unless we went to turn 6 or 7, so I disembarked my Warriors and zoomed their empty Raider over on top of my objective to contest. The de-Venomed Trueborn moved towards my objective as well, while the remaining Venom continued to face the Sternguard, and this time I had enough sense to move back slightly out of rapid firing range. My Wyches, now quite high on Pain, entered the lower level of the enemy bastion, aaaand that was that.

In the shooting phase, the Warriors, both units of Trueborn and the Venom fired into the Sternguard, killing five of them despite their cover, though the last three passed their leadership test. My Wyches fleeted up to the middle level of the bastion, ready to charge up into the Scouts if I had a good enough difficult terrain roll. The Wych Raider fired again at the Storm Talon, but missed this time, which meant that the Talon's full arsenal would probably be turned on my Wyches next turn. Oh dear.

In close combat, Yhrenna attacked the Librarian, but couldn't get past his storm shield. My Wyches, however, took the opportunity to stab him in the back, killing him and earning another Pain Token. Swinging back, the last Terminator hammered down another Wych, drawing combat, though he was now surrounded on all sides by attractive Eldar women who clearly wanted him badly (how terrifying!). My other Wyches, meanwhile, rolled well enough to charge up onto the roof and surprised the Scouts, slicing them all to shreds in the blink of an eye and earning their third Pain Token. With a unit of Fearless, Feel-No-Pain'd Wyches sitting in cover on an objective, I was a lot more confident of victory now.



In my opponent's turn, the Storm finally arrived from reserve, outflanking near my objective as I had originally feared. Instead of zooming his Speeder right on top of my objective, however, he hung back, disembarking his Scouts further away. The last three Sternguard, meanwhile, exited terrain to go after my Warriors and, hopefully, get rid of my closest scoring unit. Finally, the Storm Talon edged a little closer to his home objective to contest it.

In shooting, the Sternguard's heavy flamer roared to lift, roasting three Warriors despite their Feel No Pain. The Storm Talon opened fire on the Wyches, who went to ground and only lost one of their number. Finally, the Scouts ran towards my home objective, but didn't roll high enough to actually grab it.

In close combat, the last Terminator finally met a stabby end at the blades of the Wyches, earning them a third Pain Token of their own, and they and Yhrenna consolidated back into cover to enjoy their meal. The Sternguard, meanwhile, charged the Warriors, who struck first and bounced harmlessly off of the Sternguard's armour. Striking back, the Astartes Veterans clobbered down two of the Kabalites despite Feel No Pain, broke them, and ran them down, before consolidating closer to my home objective. And with that, I had no scoring units near my own objective, while the Space Marines had two. Lovely.




TURN 6

At this point, while I had inflicted a lot of crippling losses on the Seekers, the game was still a draw so far: I needed to rid myself of the Storm Talon contesting the Marine objective, and keep the Scouts and Sternguard from my home objective as well. With this in mind, my remaining Venom edged back,  while the empty Warrior Raider and the Trueborn edged around to zap the incoming Scouts. Everything else, though, stood its ground: my Archon and Wyches had played their part in this game, their positioning meant that I'd need some amazing fleet moves to get them to any of the other trouble areas on the board.

I went straight to the shooting phase, with the Venom and their Trueborn passengers splintering and freeming down two more Sternguard, leaving just the Sergeant alive. The aforementioned Sarge passed his leadership test, however, and continued on his merry way with cigar-chomping gusto. The other Trueborn and the Raider zapped the Scouts, killing three of them, but they too passed their leadership, obviously eager to impress the badass Sarge. Still, I figured that as long as either the Trueborn or the Raider remained alive, I could still contest that objective. Finally, and crucially, the Wych Raider lanced the Storm Talon, blowing its engines off and, critically, immobilizing it. With the Storm Talon now grounded, it was out of the three inches needed to contest the objective on the roof of the bastion.



Desperate for a draw at this point, my opponent did what he could with his remaining forces. The Sternguard Sarge moved and ran towards my objective, while the Scouts moved towards my Raider, and the Storm zoomed up next to the Trueborn. In the shooting phase, though, the Seekers demonstrated that they had lost none of their bite, as the Scout Sergeant fired his combi-melta at the Raider and neatly wrecked it. The Storm followed suit, immolating all three of the Trueborn with its heavy flamer. Last but not least, the Storm Talon (which we agreed still had LOS to the top of the building despite being immobilized) unloaded its arsenal onto the Wyches, killing four of them despite their going to ground. Thankfully, my fearless Wyches didn't care as they danced amongst the shredded remains of their comrades. The game, though, was very close, and if it ended now, it would be a draw.

The dice gods, however, decided otherwise. With a resounding result of 6, the game contined.





TURN 7

With one last turn to secure objectives, I zoomed my Venom around the central bastion to gain line of sight to the Scouts. The Wych Raider, similarly, ignored the Storm Talon to get a bead on the last Sternguard. Everything else, though, stolidly stood its ground. In hindsight, I suppose I could have sent the Archon and Wyches after the Storm Talon to try their luck with haywire grenades, but for some reason that had never occured to me.

In the shooting phase, the Raider freemed the Sarge in the back, neatly atomizing him, while the Venom perforated the last two Scouts. Though my opponent still had his Storm left, it hardly mattered, as all of his scoring units were dead.



In my opponent's turn, he knew he had one last chance to score a draw. Once again, the Storm Talon fired all of its guns up into the bastion, and once again the Wyches went to ground. My saves were awful, and another three Wyches were shredded. It didn't matter, though, as one pain-crazed Hekatrix was lefting standing on the objective.

And with that, it was over.






FINAL SCORE:

Dark Eldar- 1
Space Marines- 0

VICTORY TO THE DARK ELDAR!



Thoughts: This battle was a lot closer than I initially thought it would be. In part, that was due to my horrible luck for the first few turns, where all of my assembled lance weapons could only shake the Marine vehicles lightly and ruin their paintwork. In part, though, it was due to my own carelessness. This battle really should be labelled

BigToof

Scryex is back!!!
Right, first and foremost, great rep.  Fluff is once again stellar.  Karma given, absolutely deserved.
I always enjoyed them, but this one had something special.  Almost bittersweet in the way that it is the last little bit of 5th...

Have you tried 6th yet?
I'd love to know from veteran DE players (especially Wych users) how they are handling the shifts.  I haven't really managed to make a DE list I like yet.

Oh, and I liked the VASSAL pics, but that's just my love for the program.  If you're taking pictures, you might want to click away from the unit you last moved otherwise you'll get those annoying red lines.

Great job, and hope to see more!

Best,
-BT
BigToof Points:

Cammerz: 8
Waaaghpower: 1
The Man They Call Jayne: 3
Mabbz: 6
Archon Sharrek: 3

Scyrex Deledras

Quote from: BigToof on July 06, 2012, 12:45:22 AM
Scryex is back!!!
Right, first and foremost, great rep.  Fluff is once again stellar.  Karma given, absolutely deserved.
I always enjoyed them, but this one had something special.  Almost bittersweet in the way that it is the last little bit of 5th...

Have you tried 6th yet?
I'd love to know from veteran DE players (especially Wych users) how they are handling the shifts.  I haven't really managed to make a DE list I like yet.

Oh, and I liked the VASSAL pics, but that's just my love for the program.  If you're taking pictures, you might want to click away from the unit you last moved otherwise you'll get those annoying red lines.

Great job, and hope to see more!

Best,
-BT

Thanks, glad for the karma! I'll be honest, I didn't feel so bitter sweet about this battle so much as mildly annoyed at all of my varying tactical errors. All I can say is thank goodness we have pre-measuring now.

I have yet to play any games of 6th yet. So far, its a mixed bag for me-- although I really like most of the new rules, the nerf to power weapons (and, by extension, my agonizers and my poor Incubi) is incredibly annoying. Ditto for the whole rule about not being able to assault when you come out of reserves: that nerfs the webway build I was planning on, and the rule as a whole makes absolutely no sense to me, given how many armies and units it affects. Finally, flyers will need some getting used to (I find it gratifying that I can take cheap terrain with AA guns to counter this threat, but I'm a little annoyed that I'll be practically forced to do so now). Either way, as a Wych user, the prospect of Overwatch and random charge distances is a little annoying, but I'm going to try and see how well they perform in the new edition anyway.

And thanks for the pointers on Vassal, that's something that I overlooked. Then again, maybe I should have taken the extra effort to at some special effects to the pictures, since you can do that with Vassal.