Battle Report - Demons vs Eldar

What was originally meant to be an epic 2000 point battle of Eldar vs Dark Eldar and Demons had to be restricted to 1000 points. For Ruben, this meant picking one side from his Army and using them exclusively - he decided to go with Demons. For me, I had to lose some of my fun units like jetbikes and the Wraithlord.


Preparation
Ruben rolled for the mission and picked the Relic. I rolled for deployment and picked Vanguard. For those of you who have played with Vanguard deployment, it's a real pain to measure deployment zones so we opted for Dawn of War instead.

Ruben won both the roll to pick sides and the roll to start the game (to be fair, I think it's the first time he's gone first, ever).

Deployment
Ruben positioned his Khorne in the middle of the board with the Herald at the back of the pack. His Pink Horrors were in and around the ruins on Ruben's left flank while the Skull Cannon sat behind the Khorne demons. Both Skarbrand and the Nurgle demons were left in reserve.

I was very aware of the two main threats in Ruben's army, the Skull Cannon and the Pink Horrors. Therefore, I tried to keep everything out of range. I deployed the rangers in ruins in the centre of the board with the Dire Avengers in the trees to the right. I put the Harlequins with Eldrad in the ruins on my left flank with the Vyper hidden behind the same ruins. I put the Fire Prism on the right corner of the board, out of range of all of Ruben's units. The Swooping Hawks and War Walker were left in reserve.

Turn 1
The first turn was all Ruben. The Khorne demons surged forward towards the Relic keeping plenty of spacing. The Pink Horrors moved forward in their ruins but were still out of range for their psychic shooting power. Then the Skull Cannon moved forward and fired at the poor, defenceless rangers. He scored a direct hit so four of them died immediately. The remaining ranger failed his morale test and ran, fast. 95 points wiped out in the blink of an eye.

In response, the Harlequins moved forward through the ruins with Eldrad following thanks to his Warlord trait. I didn't want them to leave the ruins because they would continue to benefit from their fortuned (from Eldrad) 2+ cover save (from the Shadowseer). Then I started shooting. The Fire Prism fired a dispersed blast at the Khorne Demons, and killed one after three others made their invulnerable saves. Then the guided (thanks again Eldrad) Vyper fired the missile launcher at the Skull Cannon. However, being at maximum range for night fighting, the cover save was easy for Ruben. I didn't want the Dire Avengers wiped out so they stayed in the trees.

Turn 2
Nurgle arrived far too close to the Fire Prism for comfort but thanks to Ruben's terrible Deep Strike rolls, they ended up much further away - which was good. Skarbrand failed to arrive continuing Ruben's terrible reserve rolls (thoughts go back to an earlier game where his Terminators first arrived on turn 5). The Khorne demons reached the Relic in the middle of the board where they stopped to pick it up. The Pink Horrors shuffled around the ruins like little kids with their shoelaces tied together and decided again not to shoot. Then the Skull Cannon - by far the most annoying of Ruben's units - targeted the poor Harlequins and where he failed in Deep Strike, he succeeded with shooting and all 8 units were hit. A flurry of re-rolled invulnerable saves meant that the front three died and my only close combat unit was greatly reduced in strength. Thankfully Eldrad's leadership meant they stayed in the fight.

My turn and my usual calm exterior was disappearing as the Skull Cannon had screwed over two of my units for a single (shitty) Khorne demon in return. So, I did my usual psychic powers (Fortune for the Harlequins, Guide for the Vyper) but I also decided that the Khorne Demons were far too close for comfort so they needed to be Doomed. The Harlequins moved forward towards the left of the 19 demons while the Dire Avengers moved forward in cover to bring them into range of the Avenger shuriken catapults. The Fire Prism moved away from the Nurgles and the Vyper moved so that it would look more impressive doing nothing. Both the Swooping Hawks and War Walker arrived from reserve and thanks to some lucky rolling, they arrived right behind the Skull Cannon and Pink Horrors to hopefully kill some stuff. The Rangers turned in their graves.

Then the fun finally started (for me anyway). The Dire Avengers opened up on the Khorne demons with Bladestorm totalling 32 shots at BS4/5. Even with the invulnerable saves, Doom meant that 10 died. The Fire Prism fired a dispersed shot at the Nurglars and hit them all but due to some stupid rule, only three died. The gunner on the Vyper was busy finishing a sudoku so missed the Skull Cannon but luckily I still had a Swooping Hawk Exarch right behind it who decided to throw a Haywire grenade. All I had to do was not roll a 1. So, after I rolled a 1, I decided to fire everything from the War Walker at the rear armour - that's 7 S6 shots - and I scored two penetrating hits and a single glancing hit, all of which Ruben saved. So with both the Swooping Hawks and the War Walker nicely out in the open and having done precisely nothing to anything, I moved my attention back to the 9 remaining Khorne demons (including the Herald which managed to survive about 7 look-out-sirs). The Harlequins and Eldrad charged and subsequently killed four more Khorne with nothing in return. The Khorne demons failed their Demon Stability (or something) test and all died. Unfortunately, because they were so spread out and I had killed, well all of them, the Herald was technically not part of the unit any more and didn't succumb to the same fate.

Turn 3
Ruben's turn and Skarbrand arrived. Rubens amazing reserves rolling again came into play meaning I got to put Skarbrand wherever I wanted to. Apparently, I had to put him on the same gaming table we were playing on (otherwise he would have made a hell of an impact in Alex and Alasdair's Warhammer game) so he ended up in the corner. The Khorne Herald moved towards the Dire Avengers knowing that because they fired using Bladestorm, they wouldn't be able to overwatch. The remaining Nurgle things started towards the Fire Prism and ended up 3 inches away ready for the charge. The Pink Horrors didn't move again but instead fired at the fully exposed War Walker. They needed 5s to glance and got plenty from the 18 shots - the War Walker was no more. Skarbrand put on his hiking boots and headed back across the board in 6" increments while thankfully, the Skull Cannon shot missed the Dire Avengers completely.

The Khorne Herald successfully charged the Dire Avengers killing 3 of them and Ruben only had to roll 3 or more to successfully charge the Fire Prism (and potentially kill it). It seems that Ruben's luck fails him when he really needs and he managed to roll Snake Eyes. But he's such a good sport that he could see the funny side.

My movement saw the Swooping Hawks move within 1" of the Skull Cannon (I learned from Ruben's mistake) and the Harlequins and Eldrad move back to help out the Dire Avengers. I moved the Fire Prism out of range of the Nurgle and the Vyper forward to hopefully improve their range. The Fire Prism and Vyper opened up on the Pink Horrors who went to ground but four still died. Then, my favourite part of the game - one of the Hawks (not the Exarch this time) threw a Haywire grenade at the Skull Cannon and after rolling two 6s in a row, it exploded killing another Pink Horror. Pretty humiliating for the Exarch being schooled on throwing grenades by a regular Hawk.

The Dire Avengers lost two more of their number to the Herald before they all banded together and finished him off. The remaining 5 consolidated forward towards the Relic.

Turn 4
The last two turns went quicker with less on the table. Skarbrand continued back towards the middle of the table while while the Pink Horrors unleashed their psychic powers on the Hawks killing four but leaving the Exarch who managed to make eight 3+ saves. I think from turn 4 onwards and after seeing them fail to charge 3 inches, Ruben forgot all about the Nurglings.

Ruben really wanted to see Skarbrand in action so I decided to move the Harlequins and Eldrad straight towards him, partly because I have been talking up Eldrad and wanted to see what would happen, and partly because I have an innate fear or winning games (which is why I deliberately lose so much). The Dire Avengers moved towards the Relic and opened up on the Pink horrors killing a few more. The Fire Prism, Vyper and Swooping Hawk Exarch also shot at the Pink Horrors taking them down to 9. Then the Exarch charged managing to get himself killed and losing me the line-breaker point.

Turn 5
Turn 5 saw me lose, a lot. The warp table was very unkind and the Vyper died after a game of doing absolutely bugger all. The Pink Horrors unleashed on the Dire Avengers leaving just the Exarch near the Relic which would prove Ruben's undoing. Skarbrand charged the Harlequins and Eldrad and killed a Harlequin who failed two invulnerable saves.

I decided that it would very possibly be the last turn of the game so I moved the Dire Avenger exarch onto the Relic to pick it up. The Fire Prism and Dire Avenger Exarch shot at the Pink Horrors but the unit survived. Then the lowest point of the game. Skarbrand caused four wounds on the remaining two Harlequins and Eldrad. Thinking that I would keep at least one Harlequin alive, I took the wounds on Eldrad and after shrugging off the first, he was finally wounded on the second. Then Ruben dropped the bombshell that Skarbrand's warlord trait was instant death! So Eldrad died! And so did both the Harlequins. I had just gifted Ruben a second point (the first being first blood for the Rangers).

I rolled for the game to continue and luckily, it ended. I had picked up the Relic giving me three Victory points. Ruben was happy for the Draw until I pointed out that his Nurgle needed to be in my deployment zone for line-breaker. Then he was sad. But he still had a laugh about it.

It was a really fun game and I think we both learned a lot - Ruben learned the line-breaker rule for a start! I think we will see the 2000 point game next week.