Dutch 40K Grand Tournament 2012 Recap

That's what my whole army should look like

This past weekend I went to play in the Dutch GT 2012, bringing my Dark Eldar and seeing if I can get some more experience with the army. Also, I was aiming to not finish horribly in the overall standings (you know, like I usually do). Read on to see how I did!

So, after actually playtesting my GT army this year, here’s what I brought to the tournament:

Haemonculus, liquefier gun

20 Warriors, Sybarite, 2 Dark Lances
2*5 Wyches, Haywire, in Raider
3 Wracks
3 Trueborn with blaster in Venom
6 Reaver Jetbikes with 2 Heatlances and 2 Cluster Caltrops (I love these)
Ravager
Razorwing

Farseer with Runes of Warding and Guide

5 Rangers
6 Fire Dragons in Wave Serpent with Scatter Laser
5 Dark Reapers

The plan was to use the warrior blob with haemonculus as a backfield scoring unit and apply pressure with the rest of my force. The Eldar allies brought me psychic support, longe range anti-marine fire power and melta weapons.

 

Battle one vs Grey Knights and Imperial Guard

What did I learn?

-Landing pads are quite annoying
-I have trouble taking down multiple av 12 flyers
-Don’t  forget combat drugs

Most Memorable Moment

-Locked Velocity Vendatta being able to grab two objectives in the final turn, giving him +7 Victory points in a, up to then, very close game. He deep strikes his veterans on the objective he was flying over, then flew over to another objective exactly 18” away. Fast Attack choices could claim in this mission. And up until that point I was actually ahead on Victory Points. Duh!

Result

Very big loss

Battle two vs Loganwing

What did I learn
-I have no problems taking down av 14 tanks
-Don’t forget combat drugs
-When Terminators deploy in one corner, I should automatically deploy in the other corner

Most Memorable Moment

Being slightly worried when Logan Grimnir hits my lines, even though I shot up his wolf guard bodyguard in the previous turn, only to have the game end before he could turn the game in his favour after turn 5.

Result

Draw

Battle three vs Space Marines

What did I learn?

-Don’t forget about combat drugs!
-I have no problems taking down 5 man space marine units, especially when they hit my line in waves instead of in full force.
-I have a new-found loathing for thunderfire cannons. Those things wreak havoc on my army. And that’s with my opponent being unlucky with his scatter rolls!
-I need to find a way to have more troops left over late game which can contents/claim objectives in my opponent’s deployment zone. This game I had to rally 2 wyches in T5, then run them over to an objective in T6 to claim, all the while hoping they wouldn’t be shot down. Too close for comfort.

Most Memorable Moment

My two remaining reavers fighting his last two tactical marines for control of the final of three objectives. I controlled two objectives and was contesting this last one. We’d been locked in combat for three turns now, but he managed to kill both reavers in the last combat phase. Argh!

Result

Win for me.

Battle four vs Deathwing

What did I learn?

-Don’t forget combat drugs!
-Sometimes you just have one of those games where it’s hard to get the dice to roll anything above a 2.
-Seriously, how hard is it for lance weapons to a) damage av 14 buildings and b) kill terminators? The answer to both apparently is: extremely.
-I killed a total of 7 terminators and inflicted three glancing hits on a building all game. Meanwhile, he killed everything in my army.

Most Memorable Moment

Seeing my opponent deploy a Fortress of Redemption on the table. Really, it just went downhill from there…

Result

Big loss for me.


Battle five vs Imperial Guard and Blood Angels

What did I learn?

-Do. Not. Forget. Combat drugs!!
-When there’s three objectives to put down, and I can put down two of them, and I’m playing vs a slow moving army, the game is mine to lose. I placed two in the far corner of my deployment zone, he placed his in the opposite corner, and we each deployed most of our armies around the objectives and had it sit there all game. Still, was a fun game.
-I have trouble dealing with multiple av 12 flyers. One vendetta I can take down. A second I can damage. Three I have no answer for.

Most Memorable Moment:

Exploding a Vendetta just before it can drop off it’s carge of flamer-toting veterans right next to my blob of warriors protecting one of my home objectives.
A close second was bladevaning his librarian to death with my reaver jetbikes. Always fun.

Result

Win for me
 

So overall I won twice, drew once and lost twice. Pretty well done, considering my tournament results of the previous years. Once again I had a tournament where I played fun opponents each game and, apart from game 4, I had a good chance to win each game.

As usual, thanks to the organizers of the tournament for a job well done. Venue was great, event was well constructed and well led, food was great. I had a blast! Thanks, guys!

And how did my army do? Well, overall it did pretty good. I see some definite potential for the future. What I did learn was that once you start losing units, it’s pretty hard to recover. So losses tend to be pretty big losses. On the other hand, once you’re winning, it’s pretty hard to actually get full  points, because it’s relatively easy for your opponent to at least kill part of the dark eldar to score enough points to avoid getting the full Massacre result. Overall a pretty challenging army, but a fun one!

Based on the games I had this tournament I would adapt my list slighty. I’d take out the reapers and replace those with a second Razorwing. While the Reapers did ok, I feel they are a bit too expensive and I really do need more anti-air ability in my army.

I’d replace one unit of wyches with a unit of 5 warriors with a blaster and use any points left over to add more models to the unit of wyches that I have left. Wyches with haywire grenades are great for killing vehicles, but I don’t really need two units. One slightly bigger one will do just as well!
Lastly, I’d replace the Eldar Rangers with Eldar Jetbikes. The Rangers did absolutely zilch for me this tournament, apart from holding the occasional objective. Eldat jetbikes can do that too, while giving me some more S6 shots in the form of a shuriken cannon and being more mobile.

That’s it, really. The rest of the army stays as is!

 

Anyone up for a game?