Well, my Dark Eldar army choices above were based on theory but the real test was seeing how the army performed in practice. The Rogue Trader Tournament (RTT) consisted of a total of three games.
Game 1
The first game was against a Space Wolves army that contained scouts, a dreadnaught, a Long Fangs squad and a Land Raider. The mission was Dawn Assault on a pre-set game board with woods, and hills dominating the center of the battlefield. I was able to place my talos in the center of the battlefield to push my opponents army back into the corner of his deployment zone. The game ended up being a lopsided victory for me because of my army's mobility and firepower. Highlights of the game included the mandrake squad destroying the Long Fang's squad on turn 3. The Archon almost single-handedly destroyed a Grey Hunter pack. Finally, the talos and grotesques moved up the center of the battlefield and soaked up all the heavy weapons fire while the raider squads moved to flank my opponent's army.
Game 2
This game was against a Black Templar army that featured a land raider packed full of terminators with chaplain and three full squads in rhinos. The mission was Messengers on a preset game board that included several patches of woods, a building, and a river running through the middle of the battlefield. There was one bridge crossing the river. The objective of the scenario was for each player to move his three messenger units across the battlefield and exit them through the opponent board edge. Any of your messengers that left the board earned you extra victory points. If your messengers were killed they lost you victory points.
My opponent placed his land raider and rhinos as close to my deployment zone as he could. Unfortunately, this was open ground with little or no cover. I placed my units in or behind woods and cover. I won the dice roll to go first and proceeded to destroy the land raider and a rhino with my first two shots from a dark lance sniper squad and its raider. Volleys of disintegrator fire from the ravager and raiders quickly vaporized the terminators that had been in the land raider. The remaining rhinos were shaken or stunned.
The battle was quickly turning into a massacre so I used my next turn to move my messengers across the battlefield and kill my opponent's messengers. The remaining Black Templars and the Emperor's champion engaged my troops on the ground for a large close combat melee. The marines slowly cut down the Archon, grotesques, and mandrakes but it exacted a heavy toll from them. This gave my talos time to join the battle and it finished off the last of the marines and the Emperor's Champion. When my opponent conceded the battle he only had two weaponless rhinos and one marine left on the battlefield.
The highlights of this battle included the effectiveness of my dark lance sniper squads in destroying or damaging my opponent's vehicles. The ravager proved to be deadly to the terminator squad and vaporized them before they ever entered battle. The talos provided a devastating counter-attack against the marines after my assault units weakened them. The Archon was a bit disappointing because his shadowfield failed early in the battle and he died quickly.
Game 3
This game was against a Tyranid army that featured 4 broods of gaunts, a Genestealer squad, 2 squads of warriors and 2 carnifexes. The mission was "Suicide squad" on a preset "badlands" style game board that featured lots of cover in the form of stone spires and columns with a large building in the center of the battlefield. The game used victory points and each player had to choose a suicide squad from troops or elite units. This suicide squad would earn double victory points for any enemy units that it destroyed in hand to hand combat. Additionally, you earned extra victory points if by the end of the game the suicide squad was destroyed, and you lost victory points if it was not destroyed. My opponent chose his Genestealers as a suicide squad, while I chose mandrakes for that role.
This game proved to be quite a challenge for my dark eldar army. There were not many clear fire lanes and there was lots of cover to screen the Tyranid advance. The raider with my Archon was stunned repeatedly with venom cannon fire and the Archon never got into battle. There were several highlights from the battle. The ravager vaporized countless numbers of Tyranids with volley after volley of disintegrator fire. The haemonculus and grotesques were able to tie up and eventually destroy a gaunt brood on their own. The talos intercepted a brood of charging gaunts and tied them up in close combat for several rounds before being destroyed. The mandrake squad won the day for me by destroying a squad of guants and then getting itself annihilated by a carnifex. The battle was extremely close, and victory was achieved by a mere 2 victory points!
Check out the Batrep for this battle.
Post Tournament analysis
Final Battle tally: 3 wins - 0 losses
Overall I was pretty pleased with the way my army's performance in the tournament. Most of my unit and wargear choices proved to be valuable in at least one of the three games in the tournament. No one unit was dominant in all of the battles. The only wargear that was a not factor in the games was the Screaming Jets on one of the raiders. As it turned out there was not a good opportunity to make use of deep strike. In retrospect, a Dracon with incubi retinue would probably have been a better HQ choice than the uber-Archon because of the two marine armies that I faced.