Battle Report #24: Old School 40k #2, Lahkers vs Dark Eldar

Here with game #2 of the Old School 40k league.  My opponent was Zach and his mechanized Dark Eldar.  I thought this would be a relative pushover from my experience with Nathaniel.  I was wrong.

The game #2 special mission was a "crash site" mission.  We scattered 4 objectives around the table corners, each worth 1 VP, and placed a single objective, worth 2 VP, in the table center.  Around the center objective was a circle, 24" in diameter, of permanent Night Fighting (to simulate the crash site's dust cloud.)  I like that.  I just wish I hadn't been facing an army with universal Night Vision.

My list

Zach's list (recalled from memory)

Succubus, in unit w/2x Grotesques and 1x Aberration

9 5x Kabalite Warrior squads, each with Blaster

3x Raiders, all w/Dark Lance

4x Venoms w/Splinter Cannon

2x Ravagers, both w/3 Dark Lances

Razorwing Jet Fighter w/4 missiles and standard guns

Zach got the +1 attack for his combat drugs roll, and his Succubus got Trait #2 on the Dark Eldar table.  Kobeh rolled on the Personal Traits table, got one I didn't like, rerolled it, and ended up with Feel No Pain.  As a Necron.  Perhaps the universe is trying to tell me something...

Deployment was diagonal table quarters.  I won the roll off, and let Zach go first, assuming that he would be running into my face, and my guns.  He blobbed up his stuff on the top left quarter, and I gathered my troops on the bottom right.  The Scarabs and Spyders were set up to go up and around the top in a pincer movement in unison with the Praetorians, who would go around the bottom.  Everyone else was just set up to walk straight across the middle of the table.  Yeah, right into the 24" of Stealth that the enemy could ignore.

GAME TURN 1

I thought Zach would play like Nathaniel.  How wrong I was.  Zach jockeyed for position a bit, but barely moved a few inches closer to me before unleashing volleys of lance and splinter fire.  The Ravagers immobilized Kobeh's Command Barge straight away because I was foolish and took the hit on the Barge itself.  I took every subsequent hit on Kobeh, and his 4++ tanked them all.  Combined splinter fire killed 6 Immortals.

Shaken but determined to exact vengeance, I spawned Scarabs and sent them and the Praetorians around my flanks.  My troops marched forward and fired at the Ravagers, and Kobeh fired his one-shot Tachyon Arrow.  I got no results on them, but did force the Ravagers to jink.

GAME TURN  2

Zach moved only as far as he had to to get better shots.  He moved his Reaver jetbikes out to screen his Ravagers.  Subsequent massed fire killed 3 Immortals.  They tanked a lot of dice, but ended up breaking and running towards my board edge.  And with Lord Nahz, too...disgusting and cowardly.

My Deathmarks came in, and I decided to do something stupid (again) and try to glance a Venom with them.  They dropped in by the black Ravager, rapid-fired the nearest Venom, and did not get a single glance.  I had the Praetorians hook right, up towards the Reavers, and between them and my Warriors spamming gauss I killed a single jetbike, for they had both Skilled Rider and were in the Stealth bubble and got a 2+ cover save.  The Praetorians failed to reach them in the assault phase.

GAME TURN  3

Zach tired of my Stalker, focused his lances on it, and killed it.  The Succubus and her Grotesques jumped out to play with the Deathmarks, and the Reavers jetted over to my Scarabs.  They got into combat with the Scarabs and killed all but 1 base.  The Succubus and her buddies wiped the Deathmarks; no 4 models should ever possess that many attack dice.

My warriors and Praetorians stood effectively alone against the Eldar pirates.  Nahz and his one Immortal finally rallied, but were too far and too few to affect the battle.  The warriors fired on the Grotesques, they went to ground, but still took a few wounds.  My Spyders tried and failed to join the fight with the Scarab base and Reavers, the base dying moment later.  The Praetorians got in among the Grotesques, lost most of their models, and dealt a few wounds.

GAME TURN  4

Zach wore down my Warriors with massed fire; they were defiant to the end, making the majority of their Reanimation rolls.  Good on them.  The Reavers assaulted the Spyders, killed one, and my last Spyder clubbed one Reaver to death.

I conceded.  Scored was 3-0 VP, Zach with First Blood and 3+ table quarters under his control (2 VP), me with nothing at all.

I absolutely underestimated the Dark Eldar up till now.  I may have even inflicted more total unsaved wounds in close combat than at range.  It never crossed my Necron-dominated mind that the spiky space elves with the high initiative, many attacks, and crazy combat drugs might in fact hold back and use all those poisoned shots and longer range to their advantage.  Well.  Now I know.

Also not quite sure this is a list suited to a casual league.  An MSU casual list, sure.  An MSU list with all transports?  Absolutely smart and competitive...just not as casual as I'd expected.  The other half of that is me bringing a super-casual list, which literally does not have a single duplicate unit for reasons of "these models need to see daylight again, stuff 'em in".

Eh.  It's a game.  Hopefully the Deathmarks will redeem themselves next game, and I might even bring a mildly more intelligent list.

Extra Pics:

I mean, they're hedonistic depraved space elves, but they do make badass fighter jets.

Kobeh rages at the Eldar for crippling his command barge...that may have been for the best, considering this game...