3000 Point Eldar/Dark Eldar vs Space Wolves

3000 Point Eldar/Dark Eldar vs Space Wolves

This past weekend I had a very enjoyable game with my friend where I was playing 3000 points of Eldar with Dark Eldar Allies and he was playing Space Wolves.

I had gotten in to Dark Eldar as a way to fill some holes in my Eldar Army (mainly around Fast Attack) and this was the first opportunity that I had to try out the combination.

My friend brought over 1000 points of characters for me to deal with! Including Logan Grimmnar, Njal Stormcaller (in Runic Terminator Armor), Ragnar Blackmane, a generic Rune Priest (ML1) and Lukas the Trickster. Backing up the Herohammer, was a nasty 15 man Blood Claw Pack in a Land Raider Crusader, 10 man Wolf Guard Terminator Pack (loaded for bear) a 9 man Wolf Guard Pack in Rhino, 10 man Grey Hunter Pack in Rhino, 3 Thunderwolf Calvary, and a Dreadnought with Assault Cannon and Heavy Flamer.

Arrayed against him, I brought Eldrad Ulthuan, 6 Fire Dragons, 5 Wraithguard with Warlock in Wave Serpent, two 10 man Dire Avenger squads (1 in Wave Serpent),5 Pathfinders, 5 Dark Reapers (for marine killing goodness), 3 War Walkers with twin Scatter Lasers (outflanking) and a Falcon Grav Tank.

The Dark Eldar were represented by Baron Sathonyx, 5 Incubi in a Venom, 10 Warriors in a Raider (Blaster & Dark Lance), 9 Hellions, 5 Scourges (1 Heat Lance, 1 Blaster), and a Razorwing Jet Fighter.

The mission was Emperors Will. A single objective in each players table half with all three normal secondary objectives. We had pretty well set up across from each other. I had the edge in manoeuvrability and had though about deploying on the weak flank and then rolling in, but decided that I needed to try and hold the objective in my deployment zone. To this task, I set the squad of Dire Avengers on foot with Eldrad Ulthuan.

He had the first turn, which was bad for me because I needed to stop his Land Raider back in his deployment zone. Unfortunately, with it driving 12 inches forward, and then another 6 in the shooting phase, the Blood Claws inside were well within charge no matter what I managed to accomplish on my turn 1.

My turn 1, I was able to get prescience off on both the Dark Reapers and Eldrad's Dire Avengers (thanks to Eldrad's staff allowing the same power to be cast twice in the same turn). The Dire Avengers opened up with Bladestorm on the Thunderwolves, bring down 2 of their number! Whilst the Wraithguard disembarked within 12 inches of the Land Raider and blew it up with their Wraithcannons. The rest of my shooting was largely ineffectual on my Turn 1.

On his turn two, the Blood Claws moved up and assaulted my Scourges (I had left them in front of my objective as a speed bump). I had no doubts what the outcome of that assault would be, and with +2 attacks on the charge plus prescience re-rolls the young Space Wolves handily bested the birdmen.

The Wolfguard Terminators (with Njall, Logan, and Arjac) opened up on the Hellions and practically shot them off the table, leaving only a single hellion remaining. The volume of str 6 shooting form the Assault Cannon, Living Lightning, and the Dreadnoughts Assault Cannon, penetrating through the Barons Shadow Field and inflicting instant death!

Meanwhile  the last Thunderwolf charged the Raider the warriors were in. Despite several hits from the overwatch fire of the Warriors inside, the Thunderwolf survived and wrecked the Raider easily with his Thunderhammer. The Wolf Guard with Ragnar disembark from the Rhino to prepare to charge next turn,

My Turn two, Both my War Walkers and my Razorwing FAILED to come in. I felt like this put me in a really bad spot because my shooting effectiveness had been severely reduced and I thought I would need those 2 additional units to keep the pressure on. The Wraithguard shot a few hapless Blood Claws who died easily due to the wraithcannons wounding on 2+ and being a low AP, while my Dire Avengers moved to prepare to charge the Blood Claws. My Incubi disembarked form their Venom and readied to charge the Wolfguard Terminators, determined to test their blades against the best the enemy had to offer. The Dire Avengers and Wraithguard charged the Blood Claws, and spent the next couple turns in close combat. Sadly, Eldrad was lain low by the Rune Priests Force Weapon (he got 1 wound past Eldrad's 3++ save, and then sucessfully made the test to activate the Force Weapon). Fortunately, Eldrad cut him down in retaliation for the mortal wound. The Incubi, slaughtered 5 terminators! but were wiped out to a man in retaliation. While all this was going on, I continued keeping he pressure up on the rest of his forces, with the Warriors managing to finish off the Thunderwolves with a final volley of splinter shots, and my Wave Serpents started to hunt the Rhino's.

My Friends Turn Three, the Rhino with the Grey Hunters managed to immobilise itself near his Objective. The surviving Terminators moved to capture the objective on his half of the table, while Close Combat was largely everyone trying to kill Lukas the trickster (unsuccessfully!!). Ragnar charged the Wraithguard (he didn't realise just how tough they were). They weathered his attacks, and then got some lucky hits to bring the Wolf Lord down.

My turn three, the Razorwing came in, but the blasted War Walkers must have stopped for tea. They wouldn't come in now until it was too late to make a difference on the battle. The Fire Dragons disembarked from the Falcon, and slew Njall (instant Death) and Logan (3 wounds got past his 4++). The empty Wave Serpent shot up Ragnar's Rhino, and the the other (with Dire Avengers inside) skimmed over and blew up the Grey Hunters Rhino, forcing them to disembark.

My Friends turn four, The Grey Hunters tried to shoot down a Wave Serpent with their Plasma Guns. meanwhile, the Dreadnought sauntered over and laid waste to the fire dragons with its AP4 Assault Cannon and its AP4 ignores cover Heavy Flamer (Does anyone expect fire Dragons to survive after they disembark anyways?) Close Combat in turn four finally saw Lukas the Trickster slain by the Dire Avenger Exarch (thanks to people standing around cheering him) and luckily for the Eldar his Stasis Bomb heart failed to trap them for all eternity with him!

At that, we called it a game. He was down to a single Grey Hunter Pack left, and I had more than enough stuff to shoot at him to clear the table.

Lessons Learned:
1) I am always really impressed by Dire Avengers when I take them. For about 180 points, you get 27 Shuriken Shots with Blade Storm, enemies get -1 attack in close combat every turn, AND you get a 5+ invulnerable for every member of the squad while the Exarch is alive.

2) Lukas the Trickster is a beast in close combat. There is a reason for Blood Claws in the Space Wolves Codex...it is so you can get Lukas the Trickster. So many attacks, either re rolling misses or failed rounds thanks to the Wolf Claw. He killed models in almost every round of close combat.

3) Even with a 3+ reserve roll, you cannot count on them. I will seriously have to consider whether to outflank War Walkers in the future when it isn't 100% necessary to do so (for example, hoping for side armour shots). In this game, I am positive I would have been better off without outflanking.

4) Large battles are fun. I had over 80 models in my army. My Friend 53. We got to kill lots of stuff and still have units to do stuff with.