To start off we were playing an apocalypse game on an 8 x 4 board with the last 2x4 section cut off as impassable except by two bridges or skimmers. We decided beforehand to let Troops or Independent Characters count as scoring (because it’s cool thinking of an IC taking a point all on their lonesome) and we decided to use 3 objectives with 9 turns in total and each side had 4000 points. One side was Dark Eldar played by one single player and the other was myself and a friend going halves on the Craftworld Eldar in a combined Ulthwe and Iyanden force. Though I own a titan and a scorpion super heavy we opted not to take any super heavies because we didn’t think it was fair without him having any real response to them and the goal was to have fun. I knew my partner was going to take a Wraithguard heavy force with few models and I knew our opponent, who had just come into a sizeable extension to his already sizeable Dark Eldar army would have tons and tons of expendable bodies… knowing this I opted to also take an elite force and started off building my army with the Seer Council lead by Eldrad Ulthran. I opted to go for the Webway gate Eldar specific Strategic Asset which adds D6 to the strength of all my psychic powers when used within 18” and makes them get cast automatically. I piled up my three Farseers each with Eldritch Storm and gave four of my 10 warlocks Augment… to sum up I could cast 4 large blast templates that don’t need LOS up to 36” away and hit hit at Str 3 + D6 for strength (that’s 3 + 3d6 against vehicles). This unit was insanely expensive, but when paired up with the webway gate they were worth every point just for the fun and fear that they caused. My partner took a spirit host which we discovered later would haunt us strategically and he took the strategic asset that let him recycle one unit. He also opted for Asurmen to lead his forces instead of Yriel. Our Dark Eldar opponent let Asdrubel Vect lead his army and had the Strategic Asset that allowed him to flank one of his reserve rounds from any table edge and another asset, though I don’t remember which one. With such a small force my partner and I were able to bid for just 5 minutes to set up and knew we would be going first. The table was set up before any decision on table side or deployment had been set up. The objectives were a non-functional transport ship and two drop bunkers, all of which were filled with Eldar civilians that the Dark Eldar wanted to take for slaves and the Craftworld Eldar wanted to escort to the safety of a craftworld.
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Turns 1-2
The game opened slowly with the bulk of the Eldar only able to fire 12” and without any transports in the force at all the only real explosions to the opening of the game were the wrath of destruction that the seer council rained down upon a squad of Dark Eldar warriors with their Eldritch Maelstrom of Doooooom. The Dark Eldar response was to ignore the loss of the squad and vault their entire force quickly across the board, in many cases getting into combat in the first turn, including one of the 4 Archons, one with an incubi retinue no less, who felt compelled to introduce himself to a unit of Wraithguard from Ulthwe and then to introduce them to his Agonizer while his incubi made sure they were acquainted with their punishers. It was a veritable bloodbath where the center of the Eldar lines quickly folded under the pressure of three shadowfield toting Archons, two with Incubi accompaniment. The one notable moment of the second turn was Asdrubel Vect being wiped from the tabletop by 4 penetrating Eldritch Storms. As combat carried on it appeared the Eldar were getting troops into position to help their kin, all they had to do was hold out a little longer. Then the first wave of Dark Eldar reinforcements came in, and they came in from behind the Eldar, flanking from all directions… what they didn’t know was that Eldrad Ulthran had expected their arrival and had set up an ambush. Raiders fell from the sky as snipers fired and Warriors were fired upon the moment they disembarked from the sleek sky sleds. Instead of a tidal wave to wash away their craftworld kin it was little more than a ripple.
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Turns 3-6
The Seer Council used their malevolent storms to wrench another unit of warriors from life to death. Iyanden mourned as one of their Wraithlords fell to the agonizer of an Archon. However, It seemed that the Eldar had survived the worst of the Dark Eldar assault and Asurmen was leading a retribution force of Dire Avengers to turn them back to Cammoragh. Alas, it was not to be. A second wave of Dark Eldar reserves poured onto the field of battle. Three wych units all hurtled themselves near the non-functioning transport. Two units crashed into the Dire Avengers like a swarm of hungry fleas. Another unit piled into the Seer Council. The Right Flank of the Eldar completely fell under the weight of the Dark Eldar attack and Asurmen was left surrounded by many enemies after his retinue of Dire Avengers had been slaughtered. The same Archon that slew a wraithlord piled with his last Incubus into a unit of guardians wiping them out. A ray of hope shown down as the Seer Council out dueled the unit of wyches, who then broke as their drug fueled frenzy turned into a nightmare and were subsequently run down. After slaughtering the unit of guardians the warlock of the jetbike unit with the aid of Webway gate laid down a Str 10 Destructor blast and not only did the Incubus fail his armor save, but the Archon’s Shadowfield also gave out causing him to be incinerated. The Dark Eldar's lust to kill was so strong that they even fired upon their own forces as one blast template fired by a raider scattered from a Wraithlord and landed on a different raider shooting it out of the air and exposing the unit inside to their doom at the hands of the last standing Wraithlord. One by one the Eldar units fell, even the mighty Asurmen could not stand up to the Dark Eldars reckless hate. Eldrad saw in a moment that took his every bit of not inconsiderable self control to not fall to fear that his Iyanden companions had been slaughtered and only he and the council remained.
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Turns 7-9
A unit of Wraithguard from Iyanden had returned, but alas they had no spirit seer so they could not claim an objective… but they could contest it and force a draw. They ambled forward towards the closest objective. A dark Eldar Syrabite saw them, but he had no assistance. He would have to try hold them off in combat until help could arrive… but he was too far away to assault. He prepared to be vaporized by their many warp tearing guns, but then the unthinkable happened, they lost their connection to the real world. They froze and hunched over silent and before they could regain their connection to the real world the Dark Eldar reinforcements came across the field and were able to start turning the wraith constructs to slag with their volume of fire. The Syrabite claimed the last one for his own in combat cracking open the spirit stone and feasting on its insides. Eldrad saw that all hope was lost for driving the Dark Eldar back into the webway… but he could still try to save those nearest to him in the transport. He cut his way through whatever his enemy threw at him and cleaved their thin transports from the air as he watched his council diminish one by one as the protective energies of their rune armor were overwhelmed with the torrent of fire. Finally he stood alone, surrounded by enemy guns. Round after round poured into him until finally his body grew weak and gave away and the world turned to darkness.
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Results, the Dark Eldar tabled us at the bottom of turn 9.
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