In the beginning, there were Eldar EVERYWHERE!!!

...and in the end, not so much (they are a dying race you know...lol).

Exodites and Pirates, ready for war.

The enemy gathers...

So last Saturday, RTVoril and I set out for another grudge match (at least they seem like grudge matches even though in all the time we've known one another, this was only our third game). I took my Exodites with some Corsair allies using the Forgeworld list, and he brought his Cabal of the Black Primer.  Crusade scenario with 4 objectives (all of which rolled a '5' on the mysterious objective chart) and playing short table edge to short table edge (why can I never recall what that deployment is called?).

I deployed as you can see above in pretty much blob formation, while all he deployed were three Ravagers spread across the back field (which made the Corsairs' Vyper crew very nervous) and a squad of jet bikes on his left. He failed to steal the initiative, so it was my go.

Turn 1.

The Farseer cast fortune on the Dragon Knights (wraithguard) and guide on the Vyper, and then the Eldar made a general advance towards the objectives on the other side of the table, sticking to cover where possible, while the Guardians held in the woods. In the shooting phase...I think I'll more or less quote a recent battle report I saw on the Fourth Company Librarium: 'they inflicted no casualties. It was kind of depressing and I don't want to talk about it.'

The Exodite version of the 'jet bike' is so much prettier I think...

In response, the Ravagers took potshots at the Dragon knights, however they were in good cover and only lost one of their number, The jet bikes turbo boosted into my backfield and in doing so, passed over a squad of guardians, inflicting enough casualties to cause them to break and run despite the warlock having embolden. 

Turn 2.

The Guardians thankfully rallied, and the entire footslogging horde made an about face to unload on the jet bikes while my Autarch got into position to charge them. A key thing to note is that on the other end, the Farseer rolled box cars on his roll for Fortune on the Dragon knights AND still took a wound. This was to be a critical failing! He guided the Avengers though they really had no targets. 

Unleashing a vast onslaught of shuriken and lasblaster fire, the horde managed to kill just two jet bikes, WTF? They were the 'important ones' with the caltropes, or whatever they're called.  Super Fly (my Autarch on the griffon) then charged the jet bikes, killing two for no return wounds, broke and summarily ran them down. First blood went to the Exodites! And then...

Man those friggin' Venoms have a lot of firepower!

...bad things happened. It started raining Dark Eldar. With the Hellions and four Venoms (not the Treeborn though) dropping into my backfield, they then proceeded to unleash hell! Many guardians and Avengers fell to this firestorm and the Ravagers, also seizing the opportunity of the Farseer's failure, all fired into the Dragon Knights, killing three of them! It was not pretty...

Turn 3.

The 'Hand of God' prepares to remove the dead...

Objective seized!

Reeling, the Farseer managed to fortune the Dragon knights and DOOM! the Hellions. The Dragon knights gunned down one Venom, and everything else hit the Hellions, wiping them out.  The Knights/Farseer then charged the survivors of the wreck and conveniently left one alive who didn't flee, sparing them the next round's shooting. Super Fly also charged a venom but failed to kill it.

In return the Dark Eldar Trueborn still didn't show, while the rest of the venoms continued to blaze away inflicting many casualties and popping the Vyper. The Ravagers, also gunned down Super Fly after the venom he was attacking simply flew away.

Turn 4.

This squad popped a Ravager,boosting morale just before things turned really ugly.

Things were looking pretty grim at this point, and the accursed Corsairs tried to negotiate with the Dark Eldar, in hopes of trading Exodite lives for their own. The Dark Eldar however just grinned and continued to pull the trigger. A Ravager and two Venoms went down and their crews were attacked variously by the, Dragon Knights, Farseer, Corsairs and Guardians. Two Guardians fell to overwatch, finishing another squad off. The Corsairs remained locked in combat, while the other Dark Eldar survivor broke and ran from the Farseer. Somewhere in there the last of the Dragon Knights fell and their Warlock as well.  The jet pack Corsairs also pulled back to consolidate the hold on the Scatter laser squad's objective.

The Trueborn finally arrived, and proceeded to paste the Guardians with the scatter laser and the nearby Corsairs, though the few ragged survivors held. Meanwhile the Corsairs finished off the kabalite warriors they were fighting and consolidated back into the trees.

Turn 5.

You can make it!

The farseer, now in the open and all alone, fortuned himself and then made a run for the last two Pathfinders still hiding in the trees. Speaking of the Pathfinders, they didn't do a whole lot, it seems that they suffer from Aurora Scout syndrome (grrr...). The Scatter laser squad glanced the Trueborn's Venom twice, but it passed one flicker field save. and that was pretty much it right there. I had a few lasblasters left here and there via the Corsairs, but they're worthless against Venoms. Never thought I'd be wishing for regular Shuriken catapults.

The Dark Eldar then gunned down the fleeing, Farseer, the few remaining corsairs hiding in the trees, and the Trueborn's Venom wiped out the scatter laser Guardians, while the Trueborn themselves cut the jet pack squad down to just one Corsair (who held).

Turn 6.

Not a whole lot left...(note: there are 2 pathfinders in the trees on the lower right of this photo.)

I rolled a 1 and thus didn't get tabled. Whew! Counting things up, I had first blood, he had line breaker, both Warlords were dead (still don't recall who his warlord was, or when I killed him), and nobody had any objectives at that point. So it came down to victory points, and with just three models left on my side, there was no point in even bothering to count them up. The Dark Eldar had a clear victory.

It was a fun game though, and again many thanks to Neverness for taking all of these photos for me! I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah or (insert your holiday of choice here). This Friday (snow permitting, its currently rolling across the country) I'll be heading to Mom's for the week, so you'll all have to survive without my internet rambling for a full week.  It'll be hard folks, but I'm sure you'll somehow manage...

;-p