Frankie here to talk to you guys about my 2014 dark elder list. So lets start with the list first. For more tactics and videos, check out the Tactics Corner!
HQ
Vect
Farseer on a jetbike
Troops
Kabalite Warriors X5
-Venom (night Shields, venom cannon)
Kabalite Warriors X5
-Venom (night Shields, venom cannon)
Kabalite Warriors X5
-Venom (night Shields, venom cannon)
Kabalite Warriors X5
-Venom (night Shields, venom cannon)
Kabalite Warriors X5
-Venom ( venom cannon)
Guardians X20 (Bright lance X2)
Heavy Support
Ravager (Night shields, Dark lance X3)
Ravager (Night shields, Dark lance X3)
Ravager (Night shields, Dark lance X3)
Wraithknight (wraith cannon X2)
I recently just won the T-shift open in Seattle and will talk about my games against the different armies.
Game One
So game one I was playing the previous year’s champion who was playing white scars with tau allies. The White Scars had two bike squads one with the decked out Chapter Master. 3 Thunderfire Cannons, 2 Tactical Squads, Kroot, 1 Riptide, 3 Broadsides and a Buff Commander. I was pretty nervous going into this game as he had a lot of fire power and those Thunderfire Cannons were going to eat through my Guardian blob. Luckily I got first turn and was able to bring down the rain, killing one Tactical Squad and one Thunderfire, all the Broadsides and the Buff Commander on turn one. My dice were not hot during my first turn of shooting and I didn’t miss a single shot. Not a bad start to the tournament. On the bottom of turn five he went for a last rush onto the objectives trying to tie the primary and get some points. Unfortunately for him the game went on and I was able to kill his last units. Great player just a run of bad luck. 22-6 Dark Eldar victory.
Game Two
I was paired up against the new Nids codex. He had 2 Flying Hive Tyrants, 1 Tervigon, 30 Termgaunts, 2 Exocrines, 1 Tyrranofex, 2 Crones, and 2 Genestealer eight man broods. I was interested to see how this game was going to go as I had not played against the new Nids yet. Again I got first turn and was able to hammer the nail in the coffin with a devastating alpha strike. I killed the Tyrranofex, Tervigon and one Exocrine…ouch. My opponent had reserved both Hive Tyrants, the Crones, and two Genestealers in reserve so that he could jump on the objectives later in the game. His turn one was pretty quick, not able to do a lot with his main hitters off the table. His reserves came in two at a time and I was able to clear each pair off of the table on the following turns. This game was a lot more one-sided than my first and I really felt bad. Luckily my opponent had a great attitude and knew it wasn’t going to be a close game. 22-6 Dark Elder victory.
Game Three
I was paired up against the Tyranid player’s friend who was playing Imperial Guard and Elder allies. This game I was really worried as IG is a bad match up for my army. His list was a Platoon Squad Blob with a Commissar and a Primaries, Psyker Battle Squad, forgeworld Manticore, Vulture, 2 Saber Platforms, 2 Wave Serpents with five man Dire Avengers inside, a Wraithknight, and 1 Farseer with the 2 up re-roll mask. First turn I was unable to get first blood which I was really hoping to get but luckily I was able to stun both wave serpents and stay out of range of the Manticore since it was night fight. He got first blood by killing one of my Ravagers. My turn two I was able to kill the Wraithknight, both Sabers and both Wave Serpents. Turn three I killed his Command Squad both Dire squads, the Farseer and stun the Manticore. He ended up giving up after my turn three as my Wraithknight was in his back field and he had nothing left to deal with it. 20-6 Dark Elder victory.
Game Four
I was paired against an Imperial Guard and Space Wolf combo. I was pretty sure I was going to lose this game as he had 5 Saber Platforms, a large blob squad with a Commissar and a Rune Priest, 2 Vendettas with Melta Vets inside, 2 Forgeworld Manticores, Aegis with a Quadgun, and a 9 man Grey Hunter unit in a Drop Pod. This game he gave me first turn as I had Vect and it was night fight. I made sure to stay away from the Manticores and killed enough guys in several Saber unit to cause morale checks. Unfortunately my opponent had bad luck and failed every moral check on the Sabers which kills all the guns as the crew ran away. Great first turn. My turn 2 I kill both Manticores, the Quadgun, and a few Saber units. His turn both vendettas come on and blast my Wraithknight leaving him with one wound left, haha I lucked out! I charged the Power Blob and killed it in turn 6 which allowed me to hop on the Relic and get max points. He was a very fun opponent and we had a very good game, almost tied the primary. 22-6 Dark Elder victory.
The Finals
And here we were at the last game…winner takes all! My opponent was also undefeated so this would be a tough game. 3 Riptides with Ions and SMS, 2 Hammerheads 2 with Ion and one Skyhammer, 2 flamer Suit units, 2 missile Suit squads, one with Farsight. I had first turn but was seized on… well this was already going to be hard game and now was going to be even harder.
He alpha struck me, killing 2 Ravagers and 2 Venoms. I returned fire and killed 1 Riptide, not a great turn. He finished off my Ravager and did 2 wounds to my Wraithknight as well as shot into my guardians with his Farsight unit. Luckily my Guardians went on a rampage as did my Wraithknight, clearing all the tanks and suit units on the next few turns. The game ended on turn five which we thought he had won since it was kill points even though he only had one Hammerhead left. We recalculated the kill points and it turned out that I won the primary by one kill point, wow that was a tough game! 22-6 Dark Elder victory.
That was a fun tournament and I played a lot of really good players. I didn’t think I was going to be able to pull the tournament out, especially with going 2-3 in the team tournament the day before. This week I will write my tactics and how I play my list against the different lists we commonly see in the meta.
Thanks to Zen and the TSHFT crew for putting on a great event and to all of my awesome opponents!
Dark Eldar win the tournament!
