Nebula Raiders and Birds of Prey

Warhammer 40,000 has been put on ice here: it is summer, the weekends are full of festive events, and at the very same time it is exams time. Almost four weeks and only a single game. Nonetheless, this one is worthy of a report!

I accidentally bought a box of Dark Eldar warriors on Ebay. Shipping included, I paid less than a quarter of the official GW price (without shipping) for the box, and I didn't expect to win the auction.
Dark Eldar. The army I have wanted to play ever since the beginning of my Warhammer 40.000 career. Dark Eldar, the incarnation of my greatest passion on the battlefield: speed. I decided against them because I am more of a shining knight type of person than evil sadist, and because I was always - all those years - waiting for their codex to get an update.

The unexpected auction win cause my craving for the Dark Eldar to reignite. I spent nights looking for more models I could buy off Ebay, or calculating the cost of an army of new models, and trying to find out where to get the money from.
I failed: I just don't have the money right now. But the decision to start Dark Eldar is now irrevocable. I am saving up, and who knows? Maybe by the end of the year my dream comes true and a shining new Codex: Dark Eldar makes my day...


Anyway. As you might know, my gaming group is very keen on the fluff behind our games. It might not surprise you that a rough draft of my cabal's fluff has already been written. Enjoy.

Originally Posted by Imperial Communique

Subject Cipher
Death Lords

Subject Classification
Dark Eldar cabal

Subject Origin
Webway, Nezzorragh [unverified]

Subject Description

The Lords of Death are Xeno pirates of Eldar heritage rumored to originate from a city within the Webway named Nezzorragh, which is presumably a smaller sister of the pirate city Cormorragh. The cabal is held responsible for various recent raids on Imperial convois and settlements throughout the Scarus sector and is currently believed to be operating in the Finial sector.

The last supposable contact with these pirates was during the Weldomar incident at 000012.M42 when the following communications were recorded on the bridge of the Vendetta-class cruiser Sword of Agrippa before the ship and the fleet of escorts and transports it protected vanished under mysterious circumstances:
"I confirm again, Sir: the scans show two Imperial cruisers and six Imperial escorts heading for us at full speed."
"Are they damaged? Are there any pursuers?"
"Negative, Sir."
"Hail them again, Lieutenant."
"Still no reply, Sir."
"They're quite close now and not slowing down?"
"Not a bit, Captain."
"That does it, I don't trust this: battle stations, everyone! Activate fire control!"
"Captain, I can not get a lock on their exact position, but those can't be the ships the scanners try to make us believe: they are moving much too fast, and they are launching huge boarding shuttles."
"Heave to! Transposition maneuver! Bring her around sideways and feed them a full broadsi-"
*Explosions*
"Unknown weapons, Sir, seemingly dark matter lance technology. All ships firing on us! Shields down! Critical hit in the engine room, we are unable to maneuver. Fleet reports hits by parasitic torpedos that leech their energy and slow them down. Enemy boarding shuttles are docking with the transpo-"
*Explosions*
"Systems failing, hull breached! Sir, we can't take this any lo-"

The Deathlords cabal is supposedly led by Archon Ardûrath Wraithslayer, a particularly vile and violent individual commanding several hundred to thousand followers and a fighting fleet estimated at at least five Torture-class cruisers and two dozen Corsair-class escort ships.

They employ advanced skimmer technology and dispose of an intimidating arsenal of armor-piercing weapons based on dark matter. Their transports and fighters are fragile but unbelievably swift, skilled at combat, and stealthy. They close in quickly and prefer to fight in hand combat with a variety of poisoned monomolecular blades.

The primary target of their raids appear to be prisoners: apart from various looted goods, these pirates seem more eager to wreak havoc and bring destruction than retrieve valuable booty, whereas the rates of soldiers going missing in action and no wounded being left behind point to a high number of live abductions.

Their fighting ground forces are largely comprised of mercenaries under hire by the cabal. These adept fighters are provided by the Shadowblades gladiator wych cult, a small cult but one renowned for its reliability, straightforwardness, and success. The Shadowblades are under the lead of wychlady Ar'Gaîl the Bloodqueen, a very effective strategic mind and fearsome warrioress.


Intelligence recommends the appointment of an emergency task force to hunt down those pirates. Any and all evidence or indications regarding current operations or whereabouts of the Lords of Death cabal are to be immediately forwarded to the task force at highest priority. They are considered highly dangerous and a Code 3 threat to Imperial property. Exercise extreme caution.

To test the Dark Eldar's potential, Chaos Marines (kind as they are) have agreed to proxy a game. More on this in a seperate blog entry (due to limited characters being available) coming up soon! Here are the army lists, mission, and the deployment...

Army Lists

Dark Eldar Wych Cult, 1502 points
Ar'Gaîl the Blood Queen (counts-as Lelith Hesperax)
Wyches (6) Retinue w/ Wych Weapons, Plasma Grenades, 2x Blasters, Raider
Warriors (5) w/ Dark Lance, Raider
Warriors (5) w/ Dark Lance, Raider
Wyches (6) w/ Wych Weapons, Plasma Grenades, 2x Blasters, Raider, Succubus, Agoniser
Wyches (6) w/ Wych Weapons, Plasma Grenades, 2x Blasters, Raider, Succubus, Agoniser
Wyches (6) w/ Wych Weapons, Plasma Grenades, 2x Blasters, Raider, Succubus, Agoniser
Wyches (6) w/ Wych Weapons, Plasma Grenades, 2x Blasters, Raider, Succubus, Agoniser
Ravager w/ 3x Disintegrators
Ravager w/ 3x Disintegrators
Ravager

Black Legion Chaos Space Marines, 1516 points
Lord w/ Mark of Nurgle, Daemon Weapon, Bike
Dreadnought w/ additional DCCW, Heavy Flamer
Plague Marines (7) w/ Champion, 2x Plasma Guns, Rhino w/ Combi-Flamer
Plague Marines (7) w/ Champion, 2x Flamers, Rhino w/ Combi-Flamer
Noise Marines (6) w/ Champion, 6x Sonic Blasters, Rhino w/ Twin-Linked Bolter
Bikers (3) w/ 2x Plasma Guns
Havocs (7) w/ 3x Missile Launchers
Predator w/ Heavy Bolter Sponsons
Defiler

Mission
Only three scoring enemy units, all of them small and fragile. I was sure to win. Then my opponent rolled for mission: Annihilation. Noooo! Kill points is the worst of the bad for my army list. I rolled for deployment and got Dawn of War: I was really happy for that at first. But after we rolled off to see who goes first and my opponent won, I would have preferred a different deployment type - though that didn't really make any difference.
Kill points and not going first, and all that while being heavily outranged by a mechanized enemy force hiding in its transports: what could possibly be a tougher first battle for Dark Eldar? This test game was a real baptism of fire: if I could get through this alive, I knew that my army list had potential.

Deployment
My opponent deployed nothing. I knew that I must not seperate my units from their raiders, but I was allowed to deploy two units from my Troops slots. So I deployed at least one wych squad in its raider screened by a building in the middle of the board. This hiding spot was only a good 20" from the best firing position for the havocs: a distance my wyches were able to cover in one turn. This little trick forced my opponents to bring his havocs in on the other side of the field - at least a small accomplishment.


Best regards to all you fellow players out there! Thanks for reading, and may the dice fall favorably...