Chad and I squared off with two very different dark eldar forces.  He chose a fairly mobile force with 2 wyche raiders, warrior raider, ravager, talos, large warrior squad w/ splinter cannons, and warp beasts.  I opted for a purely ground-based dark eldar force for a change of pace.  I had 6 warrior squads, ( 3 with splinter cannons and 3 with dark lances) 2 squads of mandrakes, and a small jetbike squad with shredders.

We rolled for mission and came up with cleanse.  I won the roll for deployment quarter and initial deployment.  I chose the quarter opposite the tank factory to force Chad's forces into a narrow corridor behind the tank factory.  I deployed a small warrior squad at the middle of the battlefield to force Chad's forces into the tank factory or behind it.

We deployed the remainder of our forces.  My dark lance squads were positioned in various buildings to give them a field of fire that covered Chad's likely advance corridor next to the tank factory.  My splinter cannon squads were positioned near the only bridge crossing the river separating Chad's forces from mine.  My mandrake counters were positioned all along the centerline of the battlefield so that they could quickly close with the enemy.  The jetbikes were placed behind a building near the center of the battlefield along my board edge.  All of Chad's skimmers were placed in the street behind the tank factory.  Chad's warrior squad and talos were inside the tank factory.  Chad's warp beasts were deployed on my side of the river in some rubble.

Chad won the roll for first turn and opted to go first.  He advanced a wyche raider, raider squad, warriors, talos, and ravager into the street near the bridge.  He moved another wyche raider 24" to cross the river and support his warp beasts.  The warp beasts advanced toward my squad in the middle of the board but did not get within charge range.  The reason being that his ravager blasted half of the squad with disintegrators and they fell back out of assault range.  I took few more casualties from Chad's shooting in the first turn but overall it was uneventful.

On my turn 1 I advanced the mandrake counters toward his forces, especially the warp beasts and warrior squad.  A large warrior squad with splinter cannons and shredders advanced toward the warp beasts/wyche raider on my side of the river.  The jetbikes advanced across the river and stopped over the water (none crash from difficult terrain.)

During my shooting, I manage to shoot down the warrior raider.  The survivors of the wreck were quickly dispatched with shredder fire from the jetbikes.  A mandrake squad appears next to the warp beasts, shoots them, and then assaults. The beasts are wiped out at a loss of 3 mandrakes. The wyche raider on my side of the river is stunned by splinter cannon fire.  The other wyche raider is shaken by dark lance fire.  The remainder of my shooting is ineffective (too many 1's and 2's).

Turn 2 and Chad advances his forces.  Everything advances toward my quadrant of the battlefield.  The shaken wyche raider pulls up next to my jetbikes and unloads its lethal cargo.  The wyches shoot at my bikes to no effect but then wipe them out in the assault phase.  The wyches tried to sweep into a dark lance unit in a nearby building but fall 1" short.  Meanwhile the remainder of Chad's forces shot the crap out of my army.  A large warrior squad is reduced to 50% in an instant.  They break and fall back into some cover to regroup.  My small warrior squad with haemonculus HQ is reduced to less than 50%, breaks and falls back toward the edge of the board.

During my turn two I advance the intact large warrior squad toward the stunned wyche raider.  They fire at the raider with 2 shedders and 2 splinter cannons and do nothing to it (accursed dice!)  My dark lance squad near the other squad of wyches rapid fires into them with splinter rifles and kills 4 of them.  The shot up warrior squad also shoots the wyches with splinter cannons and kills 4 more leaving 2 wyches.  I down the ravager with dark lance fire.  I deploy my second set of mandrakes next to Chad's large warrior squad and shoot and assault them.  I lose 3 mandrakes but his squad is reduced to below 50%.

Turn 3 and the ground is soaked with dark eldar blood.  Chad advances his intact wyche raider toward my intact warrior squad and unloads the wyches.  They shoot and assault my squad causing 7 casualties.  My squad breaks (of course) and falls back a whopping 7 inches.  Chad decides to pursue but only rolls 6"!  The wyche raider shoots at my mandrakes with its disintegrator and reduces them to below 50%. They make their leadership roll.  Chad's talos joins hand to hand fighting between my mandrakes and what?s left of his large warrior squad. The mandrakes are wiped out by the talos (6 attacks!) but not before reducing the warrior squad to 5 men.  The remaining wyche squad (2 models) assaults my dark lance squad in a nearby building and kills a warrior.  The squad makes its leadership roll and the melee continues (8 warriors vs. 2 wyches.)

During my turn 3, I shoot at the wyche squad that failed to run down my warriors.  The entire squad is destroyed by splinter rifle/cannon fire.  My dark lances manage to shoot down the wyche raider on the far side of the river.  The wyche raider on my side of the river is stunned and drifts into a nearby ruin.  The HTH melee between the wyches and warriors results in a tie with one casualty on each side.  The melee continues.

Turn 4 and not much left.  The remnants of Chad's large warrior squad advanced toward the river and shoot up the remnants of one of my large warrior squads with their splinter cannons.  They cause enough casualties to take the unit below 50% and break it.  The talos advances onto the bridge towards my deployment zone.  The HTH melee between the wyche and the warriors ends with the wyche being killed.  For some reason, I decide to sweep the victorious warriors out of the building to the rivers edge.  The original plan was to move to contest the quarter across the river but it did not work out that way?

During my turn 4,   I directed my fire at Chad?s remaining raider and talos.  One glancing hit on the raider and another stun result!   That's it.  The dice gremlins are at work again!

Turn 5, Chad's talos smelled blood and advanced toward my dark lance squad at the rivers edge.  It shot and killed a warrior with its sting and then engaged the squad in HTH.  Surprisingly, the talos only killed one warrior in HTH and the squad made its leadership check.  Chad's remaining warriors advance another two inches across the river (the gremlins have got into his dice!)  They managed to kill a member of a dark lance squad.

My turn 5 and I finally managed to shoot down Chad's remaining raider with 4 dark lance shots.   Only one hit too? so much for BS 4. This was the decisive point in the battle.  If the raider survived, then Chad would probably have won. My warrior squad in HTH with the talos managed to hold on for another round despite losing 1 warrior.

At this point Chad conceded the game as I had 3 squads above 50%  that contested one quarter and occupied another.  He did not have enough firepower left or in range to damage enough squads to get a tie.  His talos was the only unit that could contest/occupy quarters and it was engaged in HTH for his turn 6.

It was a narrow victory for me and one paid for with lots of blood, dark eldar blood.  At the end of turn five I had 35 models on the table (started with 91!)  and Chad had 6.   

Chad and I did a post battle analysis and concluded that if he had positioned his raiders differently, then he could have tied easily or won outright.  Oh well, live and learn or in this case die horribly and learn ;)

I tip my hat to Chad for a hard fought and thoroughly enjoyable battle.  Next time he will be ready for me.

As a side note to those of you with ground-pounding, non-skimmer based armies out there:  YES, you can beat a dark eldar army that is skimmer based.  And before you start going on about all the heavy weapons in my ground based dark eldar force just remember that my dark lances really did not account for most of Chad?s casualties.  My dice rolling for them was pathetic.  Splinter cannon fire (S4 AP 5) won the day for me.  Can you say bolters, shootas, and shuriken catapaults?

Dan