The Lists:

Drukhari List (995 points)

Drukhari

Incursion (1000 points)

Realspace Raiders

CHARACTER

Archon (110 points)

• Warlord

• 1x Blast pistol

1x Huskblade

• Enhancement: The Art of Pain

BATTLELINE

Kabalite Warriors (120 points)

• 1x Sybarite

• 1x Blast pistol

1x Phantasm grenade launcher

1x Sybarite weapon

• 9x Kabalite Warrior

• 1x Blaster

9x Close combat weapon

1x Dark lance

1x Shredder

1x Splinter cannon

5x Splinter rifle

OTHER DATASHEETS

Court of the Archon (95 points)

• 1x Lhamaean

• 1x Shaimeshi blade

• 1x Medusae

• 1x Close combat weapon

1x Eyeburst

• 1x Sslyth

• 1x Shardcarbine

1x Splinter pistol

1x Sslyth battle-blade

• 1x Ur-ghul

• 1x Ur-ghul talons

Cronos (50 points)

• 1x Spirit syphon

1x Spirit-leech tentacles

Mandrakes (70 points)

• 1x Nightfiend

• 1x Baleblast

1x Glimmersteel blade

• 4x Mandrake

• 4x Baleblast

4x Glimmersteel blade

Mandrakes (70 points)

• 1x Nightfiend

• 1x Baleblast

1x Glimmersteel blade

• 4x Mandrake

• 4x Baleblast

4x Glimmersteel blade

Ravager (95 points)

• 1x Bladevanes

3x Dark lance

Ravager (95 points)

• 1x Bladevanes

3x Dark lance

Ravager (95 points)

• 1x Bladevanes

3x Dark lance

Voidraven Bomber (195 points)

• 1x Bladed wings

2x Dark scythe

1x Voidraven missiles

CSM List (975 points) \[reconstructed from memory for a faction I've never played, please excuse inconsistencies\]

Chaos Space Marines

Incursion (1000 points)

Slaves to Darkness

CHARACTER

Master of Possession (70 points)

• Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch

• Warlord

• 1x Bolt pistol

1x Rite of Possession

1x Staff of possession

OTHER DATASHEETS

Maulerfiend (155 points)

• Mark of Chaos: Chaos Undivided

• 1x Lasher tendrils

1x Maulerfiend fists

Obliterators (320 points)

• Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch

• 4x Obliterator

• 4x Crushing fists

4x Fleshmetal guns

Possessed (290 points)

• Mark of Chaos: Slaanesh

• 1x Possessed Champion

• 1x Hideous mutations

• 9x Possessed

• 9x Hideous mutations

Venomcrawler (140 points)

• Mark of Chaos: Chaos Undivided

• 2x Excruciator cannon

1x Soulflayer tendrils and claws

The primary mission was Supply Drop, and we determined that the corner objectives would disappear in turns 4 and 5 leaving the center. Mission rule was Chilling Rain, so no special modifiers. Deployment was Search and Destroy, so opposite deployment corners with an 18” diameter bubble around the center objective. We used a best-possible approximation of the GW tournament terrain layout A with the terrain we had, and were actually pretty close.

My buddy doesn’t like tactical randomness so he went with Bring it Down and Assassinate for his fixed missions. I picked Tactical because I’m Drukhari.

My buddy chose to put all his models on the table; I put the 3 Ravagers in Deep Strike and of course the Voidraven had to be in strat reserves. He deployed his Possessed and Master of Possession toward the top of the board heading for the top left corner objective, the Obliterators and the Venom Crawler as close to the center as possible, and the Maulerfiend heading down toward the bottom right objective.

I put my big Archon-Court-Kabs blob behind a ruin on my home objective, stuck the Cronos in there with them, and put the Mandrakes behind ruins in no man’s land, each within running distance of a corner objective in case I drew a secondary turn one that required them.

We rolled off and my buddy took first turn. Frankly as I play more and get better at Drukhari I am always happy to go second. With proper obscuring terrain to hide behind and not playing into Knights I always really want the 2 CP for strike and fade turn 1.

**Turn 1, CSM**

My buddy advanced the Possessed along the top of the board toward the top left objective; those things are terrifyingly fast, especially with the Master of Possession 1” to advances and charges. Fortunately he finished his move 12.5” away from the Mandrakes cowering behind the ruins so they were safe. He advanced the Maulerfiend all the way down to sit on the bottom right objective, and scuttled the Venomcrawler onto the center. The Obliterators moved toward the center as well. The Venomcrawler got LOS on the Mandrakes in the bottom right corner and picked two up, and then the Obliterators popped their once-a-game indirect and killed the other three. (They didn’t have the 24” range to shell my Archon blob.) Overall I wish the Mandrakes hadn’t died but frankly absorbing that once-per-game indirect was not a bad deal IMO. End of his turn I picked up the Mandrakes in the top left corner.

**Turn 1, Drukhari**

I pulled Investigate Signals and Storm Hostile Objective. I stuck the Cronos in my back corner, moved the Archon blob out of cover to be able to shoot the Possessed and the Venom Crawler, and put the Mandrakes in my opponent’s back field to investigate there. I got the Pain Token on the Archon blob back thanks to the Cronos, which felt nice. Range issues meant that I had to put the Shardcarbine from the Court into the Venom Crawler and had no shots with either torrent weapon, but otherwise I was able to put the Blaster and the Dark Lance into the Crawler and the Splinter Rifles/Cannon into the Possessed. I picked up a Possessed model after learning they have 3 wounds each (Jesus!) and put 2 wounds on another one. 1 wound on the Crawler from the Shardcarbine of all things, and the Blaster whiffed completely. I hit and wounded with the Dark Lance and my buddy failed his save. I rolled damage and got a 7, which would leave the crawler on 1 wound, but my opponent’s eyes got kind of big and I figured he hadn’t realized that the Dark Lance is a Big Gun, so I offered to let him command re-roll his save. He made it, which felt a little bad, but it’s a friendly game and if sportsmanship were always easy it wouldn’t be valuable. I spent the 2 CP to Strike and Fade back into cover with my Archon blob. I got 4 VP on secondaries from Investigate Signals and pitched Storm Hostile Objective for a CP.

**Turn 2, CSM**

My buddy picked up 10 VP on primaries for controlling the center and the bottom right objectives. He used Skinshift for 1 VP to heal his wounded Possessed, so I Vected that. He advanced his Possessed down the board toward where my blob was hiding, advanced the Venom Crawler to try to get around the corner of the ruin they were hiding behind, advanced the Obliterators toward the center objective, and had the Maulerfiend shuffle to the other side of the bottom right objective. No shooting because I hid my stuff well. The crucial moment came: he rolled his charge with the Possessed to get into melee with my Archon blob. He needed an 8 with his 1” to charge, and he rolled a 7. Oof. He had no CP left to reroll it; at this juncture he had rerolled twice and Skinshifted once, and my memory just isn’t good enough to recall what he spent the reroll on that wasn’t a save against my Kab Dark Lance.

**Turn 2, Drukhari**

I got no primary points since I had been turtling in my back field, but on the plus side I was still alive because I’d been turtling, so I knew I needed to do some work this turn. My secondaries were Deploy Teleport Homers and No Prisoners. I moved my Archon blob out of cover to get guns on the Venom Crawler and the Possessed, and floated the Cronos up with them for the aura. I brought the Bomber in on my side of the board to be able to shoot the Possessed, put the Mandrakes on his back objective to deploy teleport homers there, and brought the Ravagers in on the far side of the board with lines of sight to the Venom Crawler, the Obliterators, and the Maulerfiend.

I put a pain token on the Archon blob and got it back, which meant I had enough left to put them on all of the boats and the plane. I had the plane shoot first, putting everything into the Possessed, and picked up half the unit. Dark Scythes do \*work.\* I had the Archon blob put its anti-infantry guns into the Possessed and the Blaster and Dark Lance into the Venom Crawler. I continued having whiffs against the Venom Crawler, and the Possessed lost another model. Underwhelming shooting from the Archon blob this game. From the far side of the board, one Ravager whiffed completely, one finished killing the Venom Crawler, and one put three wounds into the Obliterators. My opponent saved one. I rolled a nat 1 on the first damage die, so I CP rerolled it into a 5 and popped one Obliterator. The second damage die was another Goddamn nat 1, so the second Obliterator that got shot lived.

End of my shooting phase, I used Strike and Fade to move my Archon blob 8” closer to the Possessed, then rolled an 11 on what only needed to be a 6” charge. With that movement I got everybody into base contact or base-to-base-to-base contact. Friends, Archon Court Kabs does \*work\* in melee. I wouldn’t call them a terrifying melee force but I picked up the entire rest of the Possessed and left the Master of Possession on one wound. His return attacks did nothing. It was an incredibly decisive fight phase. I got 5 VP for Teleport Homers in the back field and 4 VP for No Prisoners – 2 for the Possessed unit and 2 for the Venom Crawler.

**Turn 3, CSM**

My buddy spent the 2 CP post-Vect to heal up his Obliterators and bring back the destroyed model. He got 5 on primaries because he no longer had bodies on the middle objective and I controlled the top left. He turned the Obliterators around and got them into Melta range of my boats, and turned the Maulerfiend toward them as well. The Master of Possession stayed in combat with my Archon blob. He shot my Archon in the face with his staff of possession, and naturally I rolled a 1 on Shadowfield, but importantly I rolled it on the second of two wounds, so my Archon lived with 1 wound remaining. The Obliterators picked up one of my boats with Meltas, then both they and the Maulerfiend charged and killed my other two boats. My last boat Deadly Demised and put 3 mortals on the Obliterators and 3 on the Maulerfiend – best explosion ever! It actually picked up one of the Obliterators that had 2 wounds left. I killed his Master of Possession in the fight phase, though, so I had a little vengeance. I picked my Mandrakes up at the end of his turn.

**Turn 3, Drukhari**

I got 5 VP on primaries for the top left objective. I drew Cleanse and Extend Battle Lines. I moved the Kabs into the center, within Strike and Fade distance of the center objective, moved the Bomber into the mid-field to get guns on the Obliterators, and floated the Cronos after the Archon blob. I dropped the Mandrakes on the top left objective for Cleanse.

I put pain tokens on the Kabs and the plane. I was only able to put my Dark Lance and Splinter Cannon from the Kabs into the Obliterators due to range, but the Dark Lance popped the Obliterator that had taken 1 mortal from the boat exploding. Then the plane lit into them with the Dark Scythes and picked the other two models in the unit up.

At that point, my opponent conceded because there was no way he was going to win with a single Maulerfiend left.

**Quick Takeaways**

Dark Lances remain good. Voidraven Bomber (esp Dark Scythes) very good. Archon Court Kabs is pricey but it does \*work,\* and is surprisingly good in melee. Strike and Fade remains our best stratagem with no real competition. I almost used Prey on the Weak once, but then my opponent pointed out his Venom Crawler wasn’t actually below half strength, so then I didn’t. Mandrakes are an auto-include in every list, which makes the lack of available models even more infuriating. Overall, this was a very fun game, but in terms of what it tells us about Drukhari’s place in the meta, I have no shocking new insights. XD

Thank you for reading!