HOTT Epic 40K - Squats vs Dark Eldar

Having got the Dark Eldar out of the box for their photo-shoot, it would have been rude not to have played at least one game with them. In fact they ended up in two games ...

They faced the Squats, as I still have a soft-spot for this forgotten WH40K race. Both armies were based around the 12AP core forces described in my lists, then other troops were added at random, in three 4AP groupings. This gave the following armies:

Squats

4 x Blades (Warrior Brotherhood, including the general)
2 x Riders (Guild Bikers)
2 x Knights (Land-Raiders)
1 x Warband (Beserkers)
2 x Airboat (Overlord Airships)

They defended and here they are.

The Dark Eldar ended up with:

6 x Warband (Warriors)
4 x Riders (Jet-bikes and attack skimmers, including the general)
2 x Beasts (Talos)

They attacked, and deployed like this.

Here's the Dark Eldar Riders, supported by the Talos.

An aerial view of the game.

So that's a lot of pictures of the setup. Which is annoying, because the game went like this - the Dark Eldar advanced their Riders, whilst the Squats advanced the Land-Raiders supported by bikes. They hit each other ...

... and the Dark Eldar genera was killed. End of game.

Time for another game.

I used the same armies, but this time the Dark Eldar defended. The Squats attacked out of a ruined city.

The Overlord Airships moved out on the Squat left flank.

The Dark Eldar swept their Talos out on their left.

Both lines advanced cautiously towards each other.

Before the Airships could swing into position the Dark Eldar struck with their Riders against the Squat left.

Meanwhile the Talos assaulted the right.

The Squats held the initial Dark Eldar attacks, and the Airboats swung into position to block recoils. But the Dark Eldar won the next set of combats, destroying an element of Guild bikers.

The Squats got poor PIPs, which meant that they couldn't reposition the Airboats, and the Dark Eldar turned the Squat left flank.

There was no option for the Squats but a fierce attack, and in went the Land-Raiders.

Meanwhile on their right the Squats had lost the Beserkers to the Talos, but a single element of  Warriors then held them off. This continued for the rest of the game.

The Land-Raiders were initially successful, but were soon outflanked.

And destroyed.

The Airboats moved in to stabilise the situation, destroying the Hellions.

However the Dark Eldar pushed up the hill to attack the Squat general.

A couple of rounds of drawn combats saw other troops sucked into the fight, and the Squat commander outflanked.

That was the end of the Squat general.

The Squats lost one Blade (their general), two Riders, two Knights and a Warband. The Dark Eldar lost two Riders and a Warband. Despite not having anything that could deal with them directly they weren't seriously inconvenienced by the Squat Airboats, although lack of PIPs at key moments really prevented their effective deployment.