BATTLE REPORT: Rumble in the Jungle, Part 1

J and I decided to test out some new 6^th edition rules.  This was my first go at it and his second or third.  That being the case, we tried not to bite off more than we could chew.  We weren’t trying to tackle all the rules at once, just a little at a time.  For example, we did roll a mission and go for the primary and secondary objectives, but we didn’t roll out special terrain or mysterious objectives or anything like that-- we’d have choked.

As it was we only got through three turns before we called the game, mostly due to: getting late in the day and we both had things we had to do; it had taken us HOURS just to get that far with our constant referencing of the thousand-page book (okay, more like 400 pages or so); and by the end of turn three a winner was pretty predictable.

I also tried to be a better journalist and took lots of pictures, but not many turned out. 

We played 1250 points to keep it small.  I had my Crimson Fist Marines with Eldar allies (trying to vary my troops and use as many new rules as possible) and J tried out his new Dark Eldar (including a Flyer).  It was a cool and fun game, if bogged down in the swampy rules referencing.  But both sides dove right in and in three turns the blood bath hadn’t left many men on the board.  The set-up was something like this:

The Alliance of Decency:

HQ      Azimodais – librarian level 2: psychic shriek (telepathy), enfeeble (biomancy)

T          Sniper Scouts (5)

T          Tac squad (10) in Drop Pod with locator beacon

E          Sternguard (5) in Razorback

FA       Assault Marines (7)

FA       Landspeeder

HVY    Predator Tank

HQ      The Vandal Prince – autarch on jetbike

T          Guardian Jetbikes (3+1) with Warlock   

The Orgy of Naughtiness

HQ      Archon with Court in Venom

HQ      Lelith

T          Wyches (10)

T          Warriors (10)

E          Incubi (5) in Venom

FA       Beastmaster with Clawed Fiend

FA       Reaver Jetbikes (3)

HVY    Razorwing Jetfighter

My Librarian was my Warlord and the Archon was his.  We rolled out Warloard Traits but, honestly, I don’t remember what they were and they never came into play in our short game. 

The shop had some great fake plants (great for scenery, terrible for fake plants) so we set up the board as a lush jungle with ruins.  Apparently this had been an outpost of sometime in the past and was long abandoned and overgrown.  But there was still something of value here (we each had one objective on our side of the board – The Emperor’s Will mission, formerly Capture and Control, I believe).  The Game started in night fighting, which was solely to the Dark Eldar’s advantage...