Weekly Battle Report #8: Salamanders vs. New Dark Eldar Raider Spam

Hey there folks!  How's it going?  Sorry for taking so long to post my next 'weekly' battle report, it's been a crazy couple weeks of break (mostly from painting and spending time with my wifey's family), but I'm hoping to neglect this blog no longer, though it might not get the attention it deserves until break is really truly over (in another 1.5 weeks, lol)

So, today's battle report pits me against Dark Eldar once again.  It's a rematch against the same guy from the last battle report.  He apparently drew the same conclusion as I did, that wyches and grotesques suck, and changed his list accordingly.  Real quick, here's the link to all my other battle reports.  Here's his list that he used:


Dark Eldar (1850 points)

Duke Sliscus
Haemonculi w/ Toughness Check Flamer

20x Warriors w/ 2x Splinter Cannons
10x Wracks w/ 2x Random AP flamers, Raider
10x Wracks w/ 2x Random AP flamers, Raider

4x Trueborn w/ 4x Blasters, Raider
4x Trueborn w/ 4x Blasters, Raider
4x Trueborn w/ 4x Blasters, Raider

Voidraven Fighter w/ 2 Dark Lances, lots of template missiles, Flickerfield
Voidraven Fighter w/ 2 Dark Lances, lots of template missiles, Flickerfield
Voidraven Fighter w/ 2 Dark Lances, lots of template missiles, Flickerfield

Here's my list:

Vulkan
Librarian w/ Null Zone and Avenger

Dreadnought w/ MM, HF, Drop Pod w/ Locator Beacon
5x Assault Terminators w/ 5x Storm Sheilds/Thunder Hammers

10x Tactical Marines w/ Flamer, Combi-flamer, Missile Launcher, HB Razorback
10x Tactical Marines w/ Flamer, Combi-flamer, Missile Launcher, Rhino
10x Tactical Marines w/ Melta, Combi-melta, Multi-melta, Power Fist, Rhino

2x Attack Bikes w/ Multi-meltas
2x Speeders w/ 2x Heavy Flamers, 2x Multi-meltas
1x Speeder w/ Heavy Flamer, Multi-melta

Land Raider Redeemer w/ Multi-melta, Extra Armor

So, he's got lots of Raiders again (5), and lots of skimmers in general (8).  It's for sure an MSU list, but nothing he has is very survivable.

We roll for mission, and we get capture and control (again) with Dawn of War deployment.

We roll off to see who gets to go first, and he wins the roll, sticking me with first turn.  3 for 3 in failing to win that roll :)

One other thing that is important to note, is that we decided that we'd play 6 full turns, instead of random game length, just like they do it in tournaments :)

Here's the deployment: (as always IF YOU WANT BIGGER PICTURES, CLICK ON THEM!)

You can see my combat squads from the flamers with their missile launchers just hanging out.  The one on the far right is sitting on my objective.  I left my speeders in deepstrike reserve, and chose to walk everything else on.  He chose to reserve everything, either deepstriking or regular reserving them.

Salamanders Turn 1:

Everything walked on, you'll see the picture.

My dreadnought scattered waaaay farther upward than I wanted it to (like, 11").

 Dark Eldar Turn 1:


lalalalala

Salamanders Turn 2:

Both of my speeder squadrons came in.  You'll see their locations.  Also, you'll see where I moved up.  I popped smoke on almost everything. 

Hoo-rah for two turns of wasted shooting on my part!  Also, my speeders are sad faced :(

 Dark Eldar Turn 2:


He rolled for reserves, getting his Warriors w/ Duke and Haemonculi (on the board edge), all 3 fighters, one squad of trueborn (which he had deepstruck), and I think that's it.  The trueborn decided to try and take out my land raider, while the fighters stayed in the corner and took fun shots from there.

The trueborn either missed or failed to do anything except to glance once.  Needless to say, the Land Raider was happily immobilized, despite the smoke popped.  Excellent :)  The combat squad on my objective was shot up by the fighters.  Also, Vulkan's ride was popped.  Good round of shooting for the Deldar.

I'm honestly not sure at all why this picture is sideways, but I can't figure out how to change it.  You'll see the fun fighter 'proxies' sitting on bases in the corner next to his only other fighter.

Salamanders Turn 3:

For some reason, my Terminators decided to stay in their Land Raider.  No clue why I didn't get them out sooner.  The Dreadnought decided to try his luck advancing toward the huge Duke's squad.  Librarian's squad got out of their razor in order to fry some Trueborn.  Everything else shuffled around to get shots on stuff.

Shooting went alright, shaking/stunning all 3 fighters, wrecking his one raider w/ Trueborn, and killing the entire squad of trueborn.

I forgot to add:  Vulkan's squad started running up toward the warrior squad too.

Dark Eldar Turn 3:

He rolled for reserves, and one squad of wracks came in, as well as both squads of Trueborn.  At this point, he has a single squad of Wracks still in reserve.

The Trueborn dropped next to my squadron of 2 speeders, ready to try and end them.  The Wracks went aggressive on me and landed directly on my objective.  The one fighter that could move turboed over to my corner behind the objective.

Shooting was still pretty good this turn.  The Trueborn failed to kill my speeders (though I think they shook them both), and the warriors shot and only killed a couple of the guys in my tactical squad.  He was also able to shake my lone speeder, but not destroy it.  The other squad of Trueborn landed up near his objective, and fried my poor Dreadnought, despite his smoke.  One more turn and he'd have been in combat.  Shucks!

Funtimes!  Lots of my melta have been shut down this turn- that's one reason I love attack bikes :)

Salamanders Turn 4:

Well, I had to kill the trueborn that I could, and also kill more skimmers.  Vulkan got into the librarian's Razorback for protection vs. poisoned weapons (which he should have done in the first place), and the Terminators finally decided it was time to get out and join the party.  Speeders all moved around (I guess one speeder stayed un-shaken) and got in his face.  Attack bikes prepared to assault the Trueborn near them.

In shooting, I brought down one of his new raiders (the Wrack's), and shook one of the fighters, and killed another one of them.  Termies got a 6 to run- next turn they'd be in his face.  The Land Raider shot and killed a single Trueborn despite him taking 5 saves in cover.  Statistics FtF :(

The Attack bikes moved up and assaulted the Trueborn, killing 3 of them, and sticking in combat.  Perfect!

His stuff is so stinkin' squishy!  I can't stress how easily everything dies in that Codex.

Dark Eldar Turn 4:

His final squad of Wracks came in, and again dropped on my objective.  Lots of T4 FNP dudes sitting there on my objective, lol.  He zipped his raiders and fighters around, and set up some shots at my guys.  His warriors moved up, and the Haemonculi prepared to force toughness checks on the termies with his flamer.

In shooting, he was able to kill my rhino containing my meltas near the objective, and shook/weapon destroyed one speeder in my squadron.  He only managed to kill 2 of my termies, which meant I'd have the majority of my unit intact to charge him.  However, I failed my Ld9 check, and the termies ran 12" away.  *sigh*

In combat, my attack bikes killed his Trueborn and consolidated out of the ruins.

What he doesn't know yet is that my Tactical Squad ate some Awesomesauce right before this battle...

Salamanders Turn 5:

Well, termies regrouped and moved toward the warriors, yet again.  Vulkan and company moved up and popped smoke, ready to assault the warriors next turn.  Speeders and attack bikes shuffled to get the best vantage points on the skimmers.  And the tactical squad prepared to do something they had never done:  assault a combat-oriented squad.

Shooting did a little bit, stunning one fighter, shaking the other, killing a random raider, and my Land Raider finished off the Trueborn in the ruins.  12/12 Trueborn accounted for :)

Assault saw my tactical squad maul his Wracks, who broke, and were chased down by the unexpected heroes!  Still one squad on the objective, though!

See, the tactical squad isn't bad vs. Wracks when they charge- they do after all get 21 attacks, 3 of them fists attacks.  Wracks aren't better at all when they aren't charging.

Here's a closeup of what's going on on my objective.  I think that raider nearby is wrecked.

Here's a closeup of what's going on on his objective.  Vulkan and co. are ready to charge in there!

Dark Eldar Turn 5:

Well, he shuffled around as best he could.  One fighter moved, and the Duke split off to go shoot at my razor w/ Vulkan and crew.  The Wracks on the terrain rolled a '2' on difficult terrain, and failed to reach my Tactical Squad.

Shooting finally killed one of my speeders off, and the Duke's shot failed to hurt the Razor.  The Warriors did a lot of damage to the Termies, who failed like 7 of their 15 or so saves.  Ewww...

No assault.  My final turn aproacheth.

Still lots of stuff to kill!

Salamanders Turn 6:

Vulkan and crew got out of their Razor, and the Razor moved afterward.  The attack bikes prepared to try and shoot down his skimmers in the area (currently 2 that were presenting a threat.  The tactical squad hadn't had enough assault yet, and prepared to assault his other wracks, who had been whittled down slightly by various vehicle explosions.

Shooting went alright, with my killing one raider, and the assault cannon from the Raider sniping the Duke.  Vulkan and co. decided to forgo using flamey death, and simply assault.

In assault, Vulkan's crew killed the Warriors to the point that they failed leadership and ran off the table.  The tactical squad again mustered up the gumption to kill some of the Wracks, who failed leadership, and were again chased down by the Tacs.

At this point, he has a weaponless raider, and a shaken fighter.  Everything else has been killed.

Here's the overview of the end of my Turn 6.

Here's my objective.  Notice the lack of Wracks there now?  Those tacs are smiling inside their helmets :)

Here's his objective, which I also control with Vulkan and cronies.

Dark Eldar Turn 6:

So, he's got 2 useless skimmers left.  Ready for the annoying part?  He simply moves them and contests both objectives, and there's nothing I can do to stop it.

My objective.

His objective.

And that's the end of the game.  I basically tabled him, while he killed almost nothing of my army, and due to his skimmer's speed, he was able to pull out a draw again.  Sigh.  I hate games like this- if it had been Victory Points, Kill Points, or multiple objectives, I would have overwhelmingly won, but this scenario we drew.

Ah well.  My non-competitive Salamanders remain undefeated, and I learned a valuable lesson:  assaulting with a full tac squad can actually be pretty good, in the right situation.

I made a lot of mistakes, this game.  The Termies should have gotten out a turn earlier, Vulkan and his squad should have comandeered the Razorback, and the flamer squad should not have gone back to kill his Trueborn- I could have killed them any number of other ways.  Lots I could have done better for sure.

So, tell me what you think of the battle.  Thoughts on Dark Eldar, and how they suck in close combat? :-p  Thoughts on how good/bad the lists are?  I'm working on a different marine list that doesn't require me to fail so hard.  I hate the Raider/Termies- but don't expect them to go anywhere for a while, since I have a backlog of Salamander reports to give :)