I built my list to determine if the new ability for Dark Eldar to add up to 3 Barges of Pleasure to a formation that can take transports was a broke or over powered thing. I thought it was and the battle proved I was correct.
My list taken is below:
Kabals
675 Points – Coterie – Archon, 6 Incubi Units, 3 Barges of Pleasure, 2 raiders, 2 Venoms [BTS]
325 Points – Flotilla – Dracon, 5 Ravagers
Partisans
250 Points – Reavers – Succubus, 6 Reaver Units
250 Points – Heavy Barge – 1 Vessel of Pain
250 Points – Heavy Barge – 1 Vessel of Pain
550 points – Wyches – Succubus, 6 Wych Units, 3 Raiders, 3 Barges of Pleasure
Titans and aircraft
500 Points – Titan – 1 Tormentor Titan
200 Points – Razorwings – 2 Razorwings
The list has only 8 activations, and one of those is aircraft. It has 9 War Engines, 6 are attached to formations.
My opponents force
Devastator Detachment 425pts, 4 Devastators, Supreme Commander, Rhinos, Hunter
Terminator Detachment 400pts 4 Terminators, Chaplain
Thunderhawk 200pts
Predator Detachment 300pts Annihilator 4x, Vindicator
Predator Detachment 325pts Annihilator 4x, Hunter
Land Speeder Detachment 200pts, Landspeeder 5x
Land Speeder Detachment 200pts Landspeeder 5x
Scout Detachment 150pts 4 Scouts, Rhinos
Predator Detachment 300pts Annihilator 4x, Vindicator
Warhound Pack 500pts 2 x Warhounds
Here is the set up
Space Marines won every strategy roll, and teleported the terminators in to engage the Tormentor, losing one of their number in the assault, and a second to combat resolution. The Terminators were later destroyed from shooting later in the same turn. They succeeded in taking 2 DC from the Tormentor Titan however.
Throughout the 3 turns the Space Marines had fairly average dice rolls, except a few times they failed to activate or rally formations and he had used his Supreme commanders re-roll already. This only happened to the DE once. My BTS Coterie and Tormentor seemed to be the main formations that were targeted, however the Titan hid and sniped at the enemy, and only move/shoot/moved after the enemy titans and predators near it had activated. I used one of the Vessels of Pain as bait to draw enemy overwatch fire, and bring the Warhounds into assault range for the Tormentor Titan. The SM commander did not fall for this.
I moved the Wyches formation over to the left to support the VOP pair (one of whom died to concentrated enemy fire from the Predators). I moved the Ravager Flotilla near the BTS Coterie, and then had the bike formation shot at by the Thunderhawk gunship who avoided the Tormentors AA range. I intercepted with the Razorwings and between my good rolls and the SM commanders bad rolls he lost the Thawk.
He put a lot of his forces who had longer ranged weaponry on overwatch, and I moved my forced around to pick on those formations with shorter ranges like the land speeders, or relocated to concentrate forces. I tried to get the Warhound titans shields down, and then also reduce the SM commanders activation count down. Over 2 turns using the added fire power from 3 Barges per formation, I slowly destroyed off 2 of the Predator formations, the 2 land speeder formations, the Thunderhawk Gunship, and the Terminators. I had lost a Vessel of Pain, and had some units removed from formations.
This in itself has proved that the DE formations who had Barges added to them, whom I kept in the front line, could absorb enemy fire (rotating the barges with better shields to the front), and then supporting them with other formations for engagements. Strangely engagements did not cause most of the enemies losses. shooting from the Ravagers, Barges of Pleasure, Tormentor Titan, Vessels of Pain and the Razorwings did most of the damage. I used the SM players lack of indirect artillery to my advantage, destroyed his only aircraft, and protected those formations who were vulnerable such as Ravagers and Reaver Jetbikes, by keeping them away from the SM predator and Warhound titan formations.
Normally in a game where DE vs SM, I would not have had the 6 Barges of Pleasure. I would not have been so bold as to tempt enemy overwatch fire like I did, as my force is usually very brittle, and the few War Engines I do have get picked on if I send them out too quickly. I also normally lose the Ravagers and a whole reaver bike formation, and perhaps a vessel of Pain, and half the wyches. This game I lost a single VOP, and some units from 3 other formations.
Here are some photos from the end of turn 3 where I achieved TSNP, T&H and DTF.
Coterie after destroying the last Predator formation. I had planned for them to take the enemy Blitz and BTS next turn.
Reaver Jetbikes holding both objectives in DE half
Tormentor titan holding DE blitz
Wyches and VOP holding both objectives in SM half
BTS Devastators holding Blitz
Scouts
Losses for both sides
My recommendations are to change the DE transport rules to have them replace raiders with Barges of Pleasure with one Barge for every 2 raiders. This will cost a lot of points if you decide to add in extra units as upgrades, as you then have to pay an extra 25 points for additional raiders, before replacing them with Barges at 100 points a barge of pleasure. You can replace your raiders with venoms at 25 points a pair, for any raiders you have.
Where possible you should have no transport spaces empty. You could have a formation with 6 infantry units and 2 barges of pleasure, but not 6 infantry units a raider and 2 barges of pleasure. As my opponent said in our debrief of the test game, having 3 barges of pleasure per infantry formation as transport upgrades, was like having a pair of warhound titans added to the infantry formation for just 300 points. I am sure he will have something to say about the proposed change on wargamer.au when he gets home.
) we're really just needing the batreps to push it over. It's solid enough and plays WAY different than all the rest of the marine lists (closer to a more elite Minervan than Codex). I think he might get on swimmingly with it.