The Duke Rides Again: Evolution Games Tourney Aftermath.

This passed Saturday I played in a good old fashioned Rogue Trader style 1850 point tournament at my local FLGS Evolution Games. I decided to bring the Dark Eldar. In fact I went with a mostly Wych Cult army. My list consisted of

The Duke

Lady Malys

3 squads of 10 wychs with Hekatrix armed with an agonizer and blast pistol. All had haywire grenades and the Hekatrix had a phantasm grenade launcher.

1 squad of 8 Kabalite Trueborns with 2 blasters and 2 splinter cannons. 3 had shard carbines while the Dracon sported a phantasm grenade launcher, ghost plate, blast pistol and agonizer.

All squads were mounted on Raiders with Flicker Fields and Night Shields. They also had Grisly Trophy’s and Tormentor Grenade Launchers.

3 Ravagers one of which had all Disintegrators. They too had Night Shields and Flicker Fields.

Game one was vs an ork horde heavy on Nobs. I faced two Nob Squads of doom one of which was mounted on bikes. He rushed forward having gotten first turn but really did not do anything other than that. This put me into position to get Gain some pain tokens. I dispatched his two Defcoptas giving The Duke and his unit and a wych unit a pain token. This put their total to 2 as I rolled a 6 for my combat drugs. The two Ravagers on the table, I opted to keep one in reserve with 2 wych units Immobilized his battle wagon while the raiders blew up the truk carrying one of the Nob squads. Turn 2 saw the further advance of the orks and some shooting which was rather ineffectual. I now had My wyches and the dukes unit In range of the Nob squads. After My reserve rolls being lack luster, I closed in. The Duke and his unit Disembarked And shot the Biker Nob squad, with Warboss, with impunity killing 3 nobs. The wyches did likewise to the now on foot second Warboss and Nob squad, with the support of the raiders. The Ravager continued to pound the battle wagon destroying a big shoota. In the assault phase The Duke killed the war boss while Lady Malys and the Trueborns killed 3 more bikers. Having lost the combat they were swiftly cut down as they only inflicted 2 wounds on the Dukes unit. The other Nob unit was more successful but failed to win for two turns. They were eventually whittled down but managed to survive the whole game, well at least the pain buy was alive. The wyches managed to hold two objective in the end. One after they wiped out a unit of grots and then a unit of burna boys who tried to lend support, the other was in my deployment zone . Sadly the Duke died in close combat after his unit was laid to waste by grotzookas. I won none the less.

Game two I squared up against Vogrin in a grudge match. Sadly this game went down hill fast. Scared of the mystics the Inquisitor brought with him, I deployed on the board despite not getting first turn. That was what sealed my fate. In the opening salvo the Manticore got 3 rockets on the Dukes unit after his raider, and two others had been downed by battle cannon and multi laser fire. The salvo immobilized one of the Ravagers and wiped out the Duke and his unit. I swear I always roll a one on my shadow field saves when it really matters. I managed to kill a couple tanks and a unit before being tabled in turn 4.

My third game saw me facing the Emperors finest, the Ultrmarines. This was a dawn of war mission so I started with everything off the table and gave the first turn to my opponent. He also opted for nothing on the table besides a squad of scouts. He then held most of his forces in reserve. This proved great for me as I just picked apart his army form a distance. It was turn 4 before he got any kill points because by this time I closed the distance. It got pretty bloody, but I manged to wipe out 3 marine units, kill a vindicator, a rhino and a razorback. The scout squad died early as well giving me 7 kill points. MY opponent managed to kill 2 wych units, they ran and got away , but were below 50%, The Duke and Lady Malys and the Trueborns they were with for a total of 5 Kill points. I was worried for a bit as he brought a squad of thunder hammer wielding terminators, big surprise. The Duke and Lady Malys did mange to kill 3 before they died though.

I have to say the Wych Cult continues to impress me. I will be purchasing some new models in the near future and I dare say I will be buying more Wyches than Warriors. I do have some more Craftworlders bits to buy as well, but I must finish some painting with them first. The only real complaint I have is wounding with wyches in close combat. Its rough is you don't have furious charge and don't wipe the unit in the first round of combat. I do like how effective you can make them against a variety of opponents though. I really recommend using the shard net and impaler though for your special weapons. As you stand a decent chance of getting a re roll wounds in combat combat drug result the razor flails are a kind of a waste. I would rather reduce power weapon or fist attacks personally.

So I did not place, but I went 2-1. My loss was to Vogrin who actually tied for first. Sadly the other person who was in the tie was using an internet favorite list. Lash Prince with lots of obliterators. Very sad.

Well Next time I will be going back to the light side and talking about my Ulthwe themed Adepticon Army. I am going to try and get back and do recaps of my ongoing Rogue Trader game as well. One of my players said he missed the game master point of view recaps. I may also have some more Dark Eldar morsels to discuss.

Until then.........

Blood Runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!