The Hambali 501st Regiment, "The Jokers", faced off against Charlie's Dark Eldar force in a 1000 point Seize Ground mission with three objectives. One objective was dead center of the board and the other two were in the open along the center line of the board - one on his side and one on mine.
It was the first time I faced Dark Eldar and I had no idea what to expect.
The Jokers brought The Riddler sporting the Executioner Plasma Cannon and some sponson plasma love, the Wolf (modified Banewolf variant), two vet squads with meltas in a Chimera, one vet squad with plasma in a Chimera, Sgt Barnes (Marbo), and Ghan, my Primaris Psyker. I purposely didn't bring my normal assortment of tanks because I wanted to get use to using my Chimelta squads to take out armor.
The Dark Eldar force had a skimmer thing with dark lances, three squads of troops with dark lances, a HQ choice with a dark lance, another skimmer for the HQ with dark lances, one of the troop squads had a bigger dark lance, and something with wings that I'm pretty sure had some kind of dark lance.
Did I mention that they had some dark lances? Charlie's new name is now Mr. Lance. Mr. Dark Lance.
We rolled for Dawn of War deployment and Charlie won for first turn. He placed his skimmer with the troops unmounted, hid another troop squad in the bushes in the back corner, and his HQ mounted in the other skimmer.
Seeing as he won first turn and had all kinds of lance weapons, it took me about a fraction of a second to decide not to deploy a darn thing. Everything was going to come in from the table edge.
Charlie's first turn was lame as everything else moved on the board but had nothing to shoot at. He did move his skimmer right up into my face with a turbo-boost.
My Executioner and Banewolf came in and started tearing apart the troop squad that was trying to find its way around a building. It was the first time I fielded the Executioner, and having five small blast templates of plasma is just loads of fun. The Banewolf's chem-cannon made short work of the squad after the plasma blasts. Only one Dark Eldar survived the attack.
The Chimelta and Chiplasma squads attacked the skimmers. Their 10 armor couldn't withstand the punishment and troop skimmer was wrecked. The HQ skimmer was only shaken.
On turn two, the first chance Mr. Dark Lance had to shoot at me, the whole battlefield lit up. The lances immobilized the Wolf and Second Squad's Chimera. The HQ unit jumped out of their skimmer and started wailing on Third Squad's Chimera, immobilizing it also. The lone ranger space elf that survived the Wolf and the Riddler ran between them and shook up the Riddler with his dark lance thingee.
In retribution, Second Squad stuck their head out of their Chimera's hatch and blew up the Dark Eldar HQ's ride (which only made him more anger). Second Squad was shaken in their Chimera and couldn't do anything. First Squad with Ghan could either go after the angry Eldar HQ or the lone ranger. Since the lone ranger was eyeing up the backside of the Riddler, I decided he had to go. The Chimera's multilaser, heavy stubber, heavy bolter, four lasguns and Ghan's Darth Sidious Lightning attack finally took him down.
Barnes showed up threw his demo charge into the full troop squad that was on the far objective. He took out four, then was promptly shot down. He did his job by preventing the troops from shooting at the Wolf again.
The HQ kept pounding on Second Squad's Chimera, but unlucky dice rolls kept them from doing any real damage other than shaking it and removing some weapons. The troops with the long range dark lance in the woods kept firing into Third Squad's Chimera, but again the dice just weren't with them and they were only shaken. Some winged things showed up in between the middle objective and Fist Squad. I can't remember if they did any shooting.
I got tired of two of my three squads getting their beauty sleep inside Chimeras with shaken results, so they jumped out and start to circle around their rides to avoid the HQ that was knocking on their door. First Squad drove up enough to get a full view of the HQ unit and managed to wipe everyone out except for the main dude. The Riddler moved slightly to get a clear line of sight to the winged things that showed up and dropped a whole bunch of small plasma template love onto them. They were still packed together in their deep strike formation and didn't get any cover save.
Then the race to the middle objective started. The remains of the troops squad that took out Barnes dove into cover behind the walls surrounding the objective. They shot and wrecked First Squad's Chimera, forcing the squad to disembark into the trees. The wreck and Second Squad's immobilized Chimera made two sides of a box that blocked Second Squad from landing on the closest objective. Luckily, by wedging the Sergeant's head between the tread and the mud flap, they were able to claim the objective.
The HQ dude pumped up on combat drugs and charged into Third Squad. That's when I discover the existence of a new whole number. When I asked what his initiative was, Mr. Dark Lance replied "Higher than yours". He managed to kill five men, but was beaten down by the remaining five.
The Wolf, finally not shaken by dark lances for the first time in three turns, attempted to turn the chem cannon on the warriors hiding behind the wall. The Wolf is an old Hellhound with a modified turret that has a chemical cannon. The chemical tanks sit up on the rear of the chassis. Because the Wolf was immobilized, it could not turn to face the warriors. When I turned the turret, however, the tanks blocked the chem cannon from getting a view of the warriors. The Wolf has a HUGE blind spot on both sides! I have never seen a more clear justification for getting the new model. Now I need to paint the truck sign onto the back of the chassis: "If you cannot see my side mirrors then I cannot see you!"
The Riddler and First and Second Squads let loose into the six remaining warriors. They did receive their cover saves, but it wasn't enough for the onslaught.
The game was called. There was only one warrior squad left to fight two and a half squads of grunts, a Psyker and a Leman Russ Executioner.
I don't care what anyone says about that old and neglected Dark Eldar codex. It is brutal against a mech army. Being able to negate my armor advantage is what terrifies me. There are only two reasons I won that match - the low points and some bad rolls.
If it were a 1,500 or 2,000 point game there would have been a lot more lances that would have tore my armor to shreds. That would have overcome the bad damage chart rolls. He effectively stopped my advance by turn two. I moved onto the board and then couldn't move anymore without abandoning my treads. That is the worst case scenario for a tread-head.
Playing against Charlie was great. He knows the game and he knows his army, which goes a long way toward making the game absolutely enjoyable. I look forward to playing against him again.
.JPG)
