Battlereport 3000pts vs. Uvenlords Iyanden

This battle report is mostly to test out the new revision DKOK 1.0 list.

Armies

AVATAR [0]
WRAITHGATE [50]
SPIRIT WRAITHGUARD WARHOST [575]
4x Wraithguard units, 4 Wave Serpent, Wraithseer
SPIRIT WRAITHGUARD WARHOST [275]
4x Wraithguard units, Spiritseer
SPIRIT WRAITHLORD WARHOST [350]
6x Wraithlord units, Spiritseer
WINDRIDER TROUPE [200]
5 Jetbike, Vyper
SWORDS OF VAUL TROUPE [250]
5 Fire Prism
NIGHT SPINNER TROUPE [175]
3x Night Spinner units
PHOENIX BOMBERS [325]
3x Phoenix Bombers
REVENANT TITANS [650]
2 Revenant Titans
WAR WALKER TROUPE [150]
4 War Walker

DKOK
REGIMENTAL HQ [575]
Death Korps Supreme Commander, 19 Death Korps Infantry units, 2 Gorgon Siege Transporters
INFANTRY COMPANY [475]
Death Korps Commander, 19 Death Korps Infantry units, 2 Gorgon Siege Transporters
GRENADIERS PLATOON [325]
8 Death Korps Grenadier units, Gorgon
DEATH RIDER COMPANY [250]
12 Death Korps Rough Rider units
HEAVY SUPPORT BATTERY [200]
3 Earthshaker Platform, 3 Trojans
HEAVY SUPPORT BATTERY [125]
3 Hydra or Heavy Anti-Aircraft Platform, 3 Trojans
DEATHSTRIKE SILO [250]
Death Korps Deathstrike Missile Silo
SUPER-HEAVY TANK PLATOON [200]
Shadowsword
TANK PLATOON [280]
6 Leman Russ
2 THUNDERBOLT FIGHTERS [150]
2 THUNDERBOLT FIGHTERS [150]

Deployment
As image, the wraith gate is on the objective by the buildings at the far left.



TURN 1
• Guards win initiative!
• Detahstrikes hit and kill both Revenants!
• Guards retain but fail to activate Earthshakers - regroup
• Phoenix bombers attack infantry/AA – kill 1 inf and 2 Trojans (3 + 2 BM)
• Thunderbolt Ground Attack kill 1 Fire Prism (2 BM)
• Wraith Guard in Wave serpents double
• Thunderbolt attack Phoenix Bombers (1 BM)
• Wraith Guard on foot fail activation in ruins – regroup
• Shadowsword advance and kill one Wave serpent for the Wraith Guard (2BM)
• Jetbikes double to the ruins on the left
• Leman Russes double and fire on Jetbikes killing 1(!) (2 BM)
• War Walkers double and fire on Russes (1 BM)
• Bombed Inf Co. advance and marshal (-2BM)
• Fire Prisms advance and fire on Russ:es killing 2 – BREAKING the Leman Russ:es
• Grenadiers fail activation – advance (1 BM)
• Wraithlords double from wraith gate, Fires and kills 3 Leman Russ on 6:s(!)
• AA-platforms doubles to the left to protect the infantry.
•Night Spinners double firing on Inf Co. One DC damage on Gorgon (2DC)
•RR march up the centre for position on next turn.
•DKOK HQ double to central wood
• END TURN – Much rallying, but not the Russes. The AA-platforms kill one Phoenix (2BM)

Both armies having advanced ready to pounce...



Turn 2
• The Avatar appears by the Wraith Lords on the far left.
• Eldar win initiative
• Death Spinners double fires at the Inf Co. (2BM)

• The BIG Battle – Wraith Lords engage Inf Co. does 1 DC (crit – does nothing) and kills 1 inf. The Wraith Lords receive 11 hits, only 1 dies (!!), The Avatar then kills 3 inf. In supportive fire!
The engagement is a tie – second round sees 5 additional inf die – Inf Co. BROKEN


• Jet Bikes retain and engage broken Inf Co. kills 3 Wind and only the commissar remains.
• DKOK HQ engage and wipe out War Walkers
• Thunderbolts retain and ground attack Fire Prisms killing 2 breaking the unit
• The Avatar engages and breaks the Art Co.
• Shadowsword sustains and misses the Wave Serpents (1 BM)
• Phoenix bombers ground attacks Grenadiers killing 2 doing 1 DC on Gorgon (3BM)
• AA-platform advance and fire on Wraith Lords - Broken(1 BM)
• Wraith Guard in Wave Serpents doubles and shoots 2 Grenadiers (3BM)
• Grenadiers marshal and back away to the ruins
• Wraith Guard on foot fail to hold – regroup
• Thunderbolts ground attack broken Fire Prisms killing one – one left
• END TURN – Eldar rally everything but the Wraith Lords
Guards fail to rally everything except Grenadiers and Art Co.

Turn 3
The situation at the start of the turn(ish)


• Guards win initiative again (!)
• Art Co. kills one Wraith Guard (2BM)
• Thunderbolts retain ground attacks Night Spinners killing one breaking the unit
• Phoenix Bombers ground attack Grenadiers doing 1 DC on Gorgon (4BM)
• Wraith Guard retain engaging grenadiers losing 1 Wraith guard and 3 Wave serpents. The Grenadiers lose one inf – Wraith Guard lose and break.
• Shadowsword advance and kill last Wave Serpent
• Jet bikes double and fires at Art Co. (1BM)
• Thunderbolts ground attack Jetbikes killing one and breaking the unit.
- Game called with a few activations remaining 3-0 DKOK Victory


Analysis:
The Battle was primarily played to test the experimental new DKOK list which I think changes a bit too much.
1. First the Deathstrike silo – It almost won the battle single handedly for the DKOK this time killing the Revenants before they could even act. In this battle the elder could do nothing to prevent it. But normally the Eldar would have won initiative but still been really hard pressed to break, to say nothing of kill, the Silo. I think that the big problem might not the armour but DC 3. If dropped to DC 2 most armies could supress it with artillery and air by retaining when they win initiative.

More importantly I really think that either “slow firing” or “fires one missle per turn” is totally necessary, everyone knows that Deathstrikes can win battles and in such a hard package the opponent needs a couple of turn to have a reasonable chance to lessen the damage they take from it.

2. I definitely think that Death riders should go up in price and be able to fire fight and get a normal CC attack (and go up in cost but maybe just to 300). Primarily because it´s silly to have different statlines on the same models in different lists. But also since they really should be able to (fluff-wise with laspistols and lots of special weapons). In this battle they couldn’t do much of anything at all because the opponent had the majority of the army in silly skimmers skimmering about.

3. The crit on Gorgons. I don´t really like the new crit since it makes the troops less likely to remain in their super heavy transports (they almost never will in fact and didn´t in this battle). But I guess that’s a general problem with all transports in Epic (and why air assaults are so very much better –marching isn’t an option). I would even consider immobilised + 1 extra DC in damage a more interesting crit.

Also those wratih troops are zogging rock hard to crack! (The rest of the eldars are squishy though)

The dice rolling for those revenants to die must have been diabolical. 2+ to hit okay. But then 3dc on both damage rolls and then two 3+ saves missed. Wow

_________________

Great report! Thanks!

_________________
https://epic40ksweden.wordpress.com/

"You have a right to be offended" - Steve Hughes
"Your feelings are hurting my thoughts" - Aron Flam

Carlos. A bit lucky for the DKOK but not that extreme. Both should hit, the medium on a D6 is 3,5 though on avarage he should have saved at least one with a DC or 2 left. Still the Deathstrike Silo is too good since it will very often get off both missiles even if the enemy gets the initiative.

Holofileds make the save roll before the d6 is rolled for, it either saves or the deathstrike does d6 damage. You do not roll d6 and then make individual saves.

Yes, I figured partisan_nick was playing it wrong because the odds of killing both revenants is pretty minimal doing it the right way (one roll for all damage).

For sure the silo is still difficult to take out. I don't think your phoenix bombers could take it out for instance. 4 AT4 shots, that's 2 hits, 1 damage + whatever the barrage does which is not going to be enough BMs to get to 6.

_________________

Only 3 BMs would be needed to suppress the DC3 War Engine, still hard for opponents to do.

Oh, I thought they came in pairs like the tracked version. What's so difficult about suppressing (in this case breaking) a 4+ save (no RA), DC3 WE? Those fire prisms look in a position to double and skim from over that hill in front of the night spinners. But of course the eldar need to win initiative.

_________________

In this case the holo-field save would not have mattered since he failed both anyways but yes we played it wrong and he just saved against two of the hits not against the enitre "attack". So bad luck!

It's hard to supress 3 DC for many armies even if they win initiative. Most attacks from fighters and artillery will only do one damage, and that is with luck and surviving the inevitable AA cover. Then they have to succeed with retain and hit again to Break the Silo otherwise 2d6 TK coing your way and pontentially doing a LOT of damage.

Compare this to the regular Detah Strike carriers if the opponent wins initiative which is likely. Even without the RA the silo is extremely much hardier with DC3 and better save. Even if an opponent fails to hurt the Death Strikes with the first activation (unlikely) they will still put at least one BM on the unit so a maximum of one missile will come your way turn one. And if you retain you are almost guranteed two BM and breaking the extremely vulerable carriers.

4+ RA with 2 DC would be better for the silo I think, or even 5+RA/4+ and 2 DC. Possibly with a slight points reduction.

I agree with a lot of what you're saying but it can only put out 1D6 TK hits a turn right? That is a significant downside compared with the average 7 hits that would come from standard deathstrikes, albeit only in their one turn of firing.

The silo is a 2 x weapon. Same damage output, except it's one-shot.

_________________

It is now. I would argue that it should have a special rule saying "one missle a turn". And probably 4+ RA 2 DC.

Still good that things in the list are getting toned down a bit.

Ok, missed that. It wasn't mentioned in the rundown of changes. Was that an intentional upgrade? I'll have to have a think about that then. I always thought the slow firing was in there to equalise the number of shots you could get off in a game, balanced against the tougher stat line. One shot 2x makes it straight up better. Let's face it, standard death strikes operate like a 2x one shot weapon, unless one gets suppressed. That said, if they come under fire they're more than likely to break as well. You also don't have the shield stripping clout of say, a unit of vultures, in the Krieg list to combine it with.

Plenty to think about...

Thanks for the report guys!

Mic

Thanks very much for posting the battle report.




Thanks for confirming that the holofields were played incorrectly, that line had me concerned. The reality is that a deathstrike missile has only a 18.5% chance of killing a revenant (5/6 to hit, 2/6 past holofield, 4/6 to cause DC3 or higher damage), and the odds of 2 DeathStrikes killing 2 Revenants is more like 3.4%.

I don't mean to undersell the DS, it's a powerful weapon against titans, but you can rest assured it's not a result you should expect to see duplicated often.
Holofields are a terrific counter (and if the opponent has DS, you can gain a few more percent of safety by starting Walkers in cover).



The DS is going to be subject to futher changes. Check the new update that's due out soon.