Blog Wars 2 - Game One

Game 1: Grey Knights vs Dark Eldar + Duke Sliscus  (Kabalite from Sons of Sanguinius)

Lining up against Kabalite and his Reaver/Ravager heavy Dark Eldar was not the ideal start to the tournament – especially after listening to the 6^th degree for the whole drive down to Mansfield complaining about how he was “tabled by Dark Eldar in two turns”
Scenario One was basically Annihilation – with Tournament points awarded for having more Kill Points and more Victory Points than your opponent.  A Special Character Kill would net you 2 TP’s

Needless to say I lost, multiple dark lances and melta weapons, combined with the sheer number of shots put out in the shooting phase left my army in pieces.  As I said earlier since I’m doing this months after the tournament I can’t give a play by play account but I’ll try and highlight the notable events and turning points of the match:

Early on I sat in my deployment zone and sniped his lines. The dreadnaughts Immobilised one Ravager and popped the Dark Lance off another – WINNING! I left the Paladins in reserve, hoping to Deepstrike close to his lines and pop those papier mache transports with Psycannon fire. In return, I lost both my transports (Ouch!) and one TL Assault cannon from the Dred on my Right flank. I decided to push up the table in my next couple of  turns, with the initial plan of getting close to reduce the amount of shots I was taking – BAD IDEA! The Reavers “gangsta drive-by” on my left side strike squad left no survivors with every marine failing their 3+ saves! My right didn’t fair much better, with a Dark Lance finishing off my already damaged Dred and the remaining strike squad torn apart by Venom fire (again no marines passed a save) I was pretty shocked that out of 10 saves of a 3+ not one passed! But that’s the game, sometimes the dice hate your face!

In the 4^th turn (I think) my paladin squads turned up and I managed to blow a fairly large hole in Kabalite’s army – the resilience and combined fire of the Paladins proved a rather hard obstacle to shift for the Eldar. I smashed the Duke’s transport and totalled his retinue – leaving the Duke standing alone in wreckage. The Reaver squads were whittled down and I think two squads of witches bit the dust! However, as the Paladins were the only thing left of my army, The Eldar could concentrate their fire and take them down by sheer number of shots. On the DE final turn I had Draigo (reduced to one wound!) within charge distance of a squad of witches, naturally hesitant Kabalite was unsure of whether to go for broke and try and take down Draigo for the bonus 2 TP.

In the end he charged in and the result didn’t exactly go as expected. 5 Wyches on the charge = no wounds!!!! Draigo, the last man standing fought back, killed 3 of the Xeno scum won the combat and caused the Wyches to flee! Although I’d lost the match (fairly close on Kill points but badly on Victory points) this last victory by Draigo made up for the defeat. This game was a lot closer than I expected it to be and a lot of fun!