Miniwargamer Jay and his Orks vs Skari and his Dark Eldar! Video Batrep

Miniwargamer Jay and I run into each other at a gas station... what could possibly go wrong? ! Batrep time! Enjoy:

Enhanced Aethersails for the win. I've recently included them in my force and it has provided very good effect.

As Jay learned, the speed of the Dark eldar is a weapon unto itself. The idea of whittling doesnt really happen in Dark Eldar assault armies that use the Sails because theres simply no time to do it and nowhere to hide from us. The hits come so fast and hard that it is very difficult for an enemy to extricate themselves from it or to whittle it beforeheand.

Letting you go first, I felt, was a mistake on a lot of levels. Given the choice to do it again, I suspect he won't. I was pretty surprised he did that. Just the nature of the majority of Maelstrom missions screams for you to go first.

Both are great batreps! This is a great idea Skari and I'd love to see more cross-promotional batreps. It's awesome to see the same game portrayed in two unique styles. Bravo!

Amazing report as always Skari! I always look forward to each new battle for the Dark Olympiad. I was also really impressed with advanced sails....makes me think about changing my list around. Do you have any hopes or fears about the new book supposedly coming in a few months?

Nice game. I didn't expect to see Jay in you battle report, all stars in one video!

@Unorthodoxy wrote:

Letting you go first, I felt, was a mistake on a lot of levels. Given the choice to do it again, I suspect he won't.  I was pretty surprised he did that.  Just the nature of the majority of Maelstrom missions screams for you to go first.

Very much this - as soon as I saw that and saw what the two armies were I was like...oh, well...  

The after report with the admission of not knowing or playing DE much really explained a lot.
I hear that 'you're so fast, I wasn't ready for it' comment all the time.
The closing the gauntlet comment was very apropos.

To be fair to Jay, there is not much he could have done had he gone first. Letting Skari go first was the sensible option at that point given how each had deployed. Going second wasn't the problem, deploying first and going second was.

Great batrep. Looking forward for a rematch.

@Erebus wrote:

To be fair to Jay, there is not much he could have done had he gone first. Letting Skari go first was the sensible option at that point given how each had deployed. Going second wasn't the problem, deploying first and going second was.

I disagree - he was an assault based Ork army with limited shooting and mobility. Now, just in a general sense I disagree with his list build, but with that list it was important for him to claim the center board as soon as possible in order to advance his goal of being in a position to claim objectives and force the combat.

I'll agree that trying to run down a fast skimmer army with foot Orks and some walkers is hardly a matchup to strive for (unless you're the DE side of the equation) but once you are in that situation the only logical goal is to position yourself so that you can force the enemy to close with you, or you can be in a position where they cannot evade you.

No matter whether he chose to go first or second, the DE were going to get a free round of shooting at him.
For some reason he decided to give them two.
He should have at least taken the extra movement phase.

I watched the battle from both players perspectives (i.e. both videos) and thought they were both great.

I hope you continue to produce them for some time to come!

On a completely different note; what's a Brit doing in Canada any way?   

@Erebus wrote:

To be fair to Jay, there is not much he could have done had he gone first. Letting Skari go first was the sensible option at that point given how each had deployed. Going second wasn't the problem, deploying first and going second was.

Going second was bad. Going completely strong side without mobility was also bad. So I think he did not give his best game here.

lots of great comments here!

I feel like the first thing that sealed the deal was his deployment, cornering in one flank, I was able to envelop him easily. And moving the warboses unit solo up the flank with no support was huge as well, instead of sending the morkanaught or the deffdread up there to assist. The going second or first was less of an issue iMO.

Deployment as aforementioned for sure but ugh... Orks really REALLY benefit from going first in most cases.

I agree with Unorthodoxy here.

I mean, if I wanted I could say his list build was the primary mistake and that the deployment was less of an issue and I would also be speaking a likely truth. But that doesn't really make the lack of going first not an issue. Choosing to go second *did* negatively effect his chances of winning, especially considering the design concept behind his army in the first place. He was playing a smash mouth army versus a mobile shooting one and decided not to advance. That seems prima facie for an unwise value call to me.

The tactical choices we make sure do affect the game regardless of list choice.