Emperor's Children vs Drukhari 1500 pts Battle Report

Past friday, I took to the field of battle for my second League game, and this time I didnt forget any troops so to claim the League's fully painted bonus hehehe.

My opponent was Steven, long time club member who I've only faced before in fantasy battles.

The Emperor's Children consisted of a warlord in Terminator armour, a sorcerer and a dark apostle, a squad of Marines with 2 flamers, 10 Noise Marines, 2 units of 20 Cultists, 2 Helbrutes, a Predator and a Rapier battery consisting of 2 quad bolters and 1 laser destroyer.

Opposing me where the Kabal, cnsiting of 2 archons, a succubus and a heamonculus.  A raider and a venom both carried kabalite warriors, supported by Mandrakes, Wracks, 2 Talos and a Chronos, Reaver jetbikes, Hellions and Scourges, and a unit with heavy weapons.

The scenario we rolled on was Spoils of War, and so we set up for what will become a very bloody battle.

Turn 1

I went first, and moved some units a bit forward to be sure to camp on some objectives should those cards come out.  I quickly scored first blood by pouring all my firepower into the Raider and the heavy weapons squad.   The Wracks where also almost wiped out, but I couldn't put them down totally so they would be coming back with the stratagem...

And as the Drukhari moved forwards, they did indeed and threw themselves into combat around objective 5.

The rest of the Drukhari force asaulted as well where they could, the Reaver bikes leading the charge.  

So at the end of the first battleround, the score stood 2 - 2

Turn 2

The Venom, who was surrounded by the Cultists, lost his finals wounds this battle, and took as such the passengers with it.  

The Mandrakes in the meantime infiltrated behind my lines and duly charged my Sorcerer, while the Talos, who had lost one to my laser destroyer, advanced over my right flank.

The Succubus and wyches thrown their lot in the melee in the centre as well, putting it all into one big soup, and I admit my Legion trait here did save my force big time.

And so the second turn ended on a 4 - 4 score, and both forces nearly halved...

Turn 3

Time to do some serious damage, and as a result the Dark Apostle and the Sorcerer both disengaged wthout taking additional wounds, but freeing them up for Rapier massacres.

The Wyches where totally annihilated in the combined storm of fire... and so was his warlord.  My last cultist on the right flank, who had remained due to Insane Bravery, suddenly reappeared in a Tide of Traitors in Steven's deployment zone to go and defend objective 3.

With the left flank of the Drukhari totally in gone, my line started to swing and close on his remaining units.

His Succubus charged my warlord... and died to an overwatch meltablast to the face...

The score went now to 6 - 8 and the first small gap in the battle was a fact.

Turn 4

With the forces very decimated, the Drukhari only had some troops left on the far right, and went to try and secure three objectives for his points.  

But not much happened except for me claiming another objective, and going to a 6 - 10 lead now.

Turn 5

In the fifth turn, it was time to try and prevent some points scoring for my opponent, and a crewman of a destroyed rapier charged his haemonculus... funnily enough knocking off a wound before going down himself.

His Talos who, had moved to objective 5 where the Mandrakes had been shot off, was blasted to pieces, so that meant he only had two characters and a Chronos left now...

The score went to 7 - 12 now

Turn 6

The dice rolled and another turn came up.  This was for Steven the dying smack, as the warlord and his entourage took down the Chronos, while the heamonculus was shot to lascannon smudge.  

The only thing he did was moving the Archon behind a building for the moral victory of not being tabled should another turn come...

... and that didn't, so the battle ended.

Adding some points for Linebreaker, and Steven for Precious Cargo, the game ended at 8 - 16.

Which truth to be told, was a far bigger gap then how the battle was flowing.  I must say that for Steven, Emperor's Children with their trait and the slaanesh effects are perhaps the most hated chaos army he can face, as it negates his "must charge early" momentum of his force largely, because if he waits for the turn counter of immune to Morale would come far to late and result in him being blasted to pieces.

But it was a great game, and a very fun opponent with much of laughs being shared around...

Codex Drukhari

The latest 8th edition codexI've read front to back, though I must admit this is not one of my armies, but actually Noshi's force in the making.

One always says one picks an army to go with one's character traits... so now you know why I always sleep with one eye open xD

The Drukhari are an ancient and technologically advanced race that feeds on the suffering of others.  Their ancestors ruled the stars long before mankind first ventured outward from Terra, and over long millenia the ennui of their vast lifespans led them to ever greater acts of depravity and violence.  Now, from the nightmare city of Commaragh nestled in the black heart of the webway, the Drukhari launch their raids on the worlds of realspace, slaughtering to sustain their withered souls and gathering up slaves to take back to their morbid torture chambers...

The Drukhari are not a force for the faint hearted, preferring mobility and alpha strikes over the long war protected by heavy armour and vehicles.  They are a force build around various skirmish units, working together in union and striking where they want to.  Which also makes them very fragile in protracted fights...

The book is made up as usual with the codexes, starting with the fluff on their genesis and their current state in the changed 40k universe.

Moving onwards, we get to have a look at all the various factions and the cults that make up the Dark Eldar society, before going in the fluff on a unit by unit basis on how they fight and came to be.

Next we have the section of the painted miniatures, though I must say the Games Workshop colourscheme doesn't do the sculpts justive in all honesty.  They are painted just too pale for my taste, giving a strangely distorted look to the models.

The army list section is next, following the usual pattern: unit datasheets, then the weapon armoury.

Stratagems, and they include so,e really nasty ones, and traits for both warlords AND your kabals, cults and the likes are then listed up.  They have some pretty nasty gear and skills in there, and the fact a Drukhari army gets dirtier with additional, CUMULATIVE skills as turns progress make them a nasty opponent you want to hit as soon as possible.

A very different army from most out there, these guys will require a certain level of skill to manouvre over the tabletop, but you won't be out of the ballpark the moment they do choose to strike with all their might, especcially if they manage to preserve their better units in the first turns and are all fresh and ready to pounce...

Kabalite Warriors

And yet more Kabalites join the ranks of Noshi's budding Dark Eldar army.

This week, I`ve finished 6 more of their number, including a third Splinter Cannon.

On the one hand because those guns are damn good, but also because, well, it where just 6 randomly taken from the box models, and it happened to have another one of them in the lot.

This now brings the painted pile of the basic Warrior of the Drukhari to a modest 11 finsihed, but slowly and steadily the ranks will be bolstered as I keep painting on.

I just hope I ain`t digging my EC's own grave with these guys...

More Kabalite warriors done

After getting the approval of Noshi on her testmodel last week, it is time to start mustering her forces.

To that end, I've been painting batches of Kabalite warriors in between the "other stuff".

The benefit of a colourscheme based around black, is that I can generate a swift rhytm for them, and the first additional 4 include two splinter cannons.

Not for any particular reason, they where just the next four I came across...

Dark Eldar Kabalite testmodel

No, I`m not starting a new army.

This is the first model for Noshi`s Dark Eldar force, a so-called "test model" for a colour scheme.

She is going to paint the "juicy stuff" herself, like the wyches, the Raging Heroes stuff, and more of those flashy things, but the lowly mass canon fodder, aka the Kabalite Warrior, will be mass painted by myself.

To that end we looked for a colourscheme that is both sinister yet not to dark, and settled on black body armour and grey helmets.  Add to that the bone of the gun casings and enchanted green for giving the guns a mystical glow, and it is quite contrasting yet not to gothic grimdark...

And now to complete a few dozen of them...