Well, this past weekend I played a 2000 point game against a friend of mine whom I hadn't seen in a while. I forgot to take pictures, but I will post the Battle Report. I have decided to do the Battle report a little different this time and make it more narrative. This Battle was Big Guns Never Tire (3 objectives) with Dawn of War deployment.
The pre-dawn fog roiled over the battlefield as Captain Frost kept his watch on the horizon. Days ago, the 213rd Sentinel Recon Platoon had spotted Xenos in the area and had reported back. Colonel Herndon of the 21st Galbrean Planetary Defense Regiment ordered Frost to deploy 2 infantry platoons to the area a few days after the sighting, but all communications had been lost. A nearby Dark angels Strike Cruiser in the area immediately answered the Colonel's call for help and now Captain Frost personally led 3rd platoon to see if they could find out the fate of his missing men. Captain Frost chose 3rd platoon because these were his best men. Grizzled veterans, the men of 3rd platoon had seen action not just on-planet but had also seen off-world action as well. Captain Frost had great faith in his men, but he was far more reassured by the presence of the Dark Angels on his flanks.
Suddenly, the pre-dawn quiet was broken by vox chatter. "Grizzly Six Actual, this is Silent Vigilance, over." Captain Frost had sent his best scout, Guardsman Marbo, far forward to keep an eye out for any signs of his men or of the Xenos.
"Go ahead Silent Vigilance, this is Grizzly Six." Captain Frost awaited the report.
"Sir, I have a lot of Xenos activity in the ruins North of your position. Looks like Eldar, sir. And they have brought a lot of firepower." Guardsman Marbo sounded both excited and nervous. He was always clamoring for action, and it looked like he was about to have his wish fulfilled.
"What do you see out there Silent Vigilance." Captain Frost had not expected Eldar, now he wondered what they were doing on his world.
"Sir, it looks like two Wraithlords, A group of witches, a Falcon Grav Tank, and several guardians...And...sir, you are not going to believe this, I see an Eldar Daemon!" Marbo's voice was a little too loud for Frost's comfort.
"Got it Marbo, keep out of sight for now and await further orders." Frost, changed the vox frequency to open comms and relayed Marbo's report to the rest of his men and then switched frequencies again to report to the Dark Angels Master still aboard the Strike Cruiser. Frost didn't like relaying battlefield intelligence to the Dark Angels in such a round a bout way, but he had no direct line of communications to the Dark Angels on the ground.
"We have received your report, Captain. We will deploy to support. Master Belial out." Frost's vox then went silent.
Frost had deployed 1st squad right next to his own squad behind a low barricade made from some debris that his men had scavenged in the center of the imperial line. He continued to look out across the scrubland to see if he could spot the Eldar. As he did so, he saw a Dark Angels heavy weapons squad take position behind a nearby rock formation on his left flank along with a group of marines in their massive Terminator Dreadnought armor. And on his right flank, he saw another Dark Angels squad carrying a Multi-melta and a plasma gun take position among some other rock formations as well as yet another group of marines in Terminator armor. Frost also had a Vendetta gunship in reserve carrying 2nd squad in case he needed it.
Finally, Frost spotted the enemy in the darkness. He could make out a group of guardians with a Scatter Laser weapons platform in the ruins at 10 o'clock and the unmistakable fiery form of the Eldar Daemon. Directly behind the guardians was a group of Eldar on jetbikes. In the center of the enemy formation was a group of Aspect Warriors (Frost recognized them as Dire Avengers from his studies of the Xenos at the war academy). Beside the Aspect warriors in the ruin were the massive forms of two Wraithlords and a small group of Eldar witches. Then Frost saw the first sign of what had happened to his men. The wreckage of a Chimera was visible and hiding among the wreckage was another group of Dire Avengers and another group of guardians with a Bright Lance platform. Frost could also make out the form of a Falcon Grav Tank behind the wreckage of the chimera.
"Contact, 12 o'clock. 1st Squad, Wraithlord in sight, fire on my target!" 1st Squad's missile launcher fired in unison with Frost's autocannon team at the massive Wraithlord. The darkness made it difficult to target even something as large as a Wraithlord, but one of the Autocannon shots found its mark and tore a chunk of Wraithbone out of it's arm. To Frost's left, the Dark Angels opened fire with a torrent of missiles and lascannon beams at the guardians in the ruins. Explosions tore through the ruins and Frost could make out the broken forms of three guardians. On his right flank, the Terminators fired their Cyclone and one of the missiles found it's mark on the Falcon tank. However, the tank's armor deflected the majority of the damage.
The Eldar now knew the Imperail forces were there and opened fire. Laser beams and Eldar missiles from the Wraithlords flew at the imperial lines. Most of the blasts tore through the rock formations or simply bounced off of Space Marine armor. However, one lucky shot downed one of the tactical marines on the right flank. Frost's men continued to hold the imperative barricade, and the marines on Frost's right flank had reported that they had found a targeting system from an Imperial vehicle that was still functioning. Frost also now noticed that the Eldar had set up some kind of gravity generator in the ruins on the right flank.
End Turn 1: DA/IG - 2 points (2 objectives); Eldar - 1 point (1 objective)
The sun was now up and Frost could now clearly see the Eldar. Frost called in the Vendetta. Almost immediately, the Vendetta came screaming over the battle field and opened fire with it's Lascannons on the enemy tank. The enemy tank took all three hits and fell to the ground in a heap of twisted wraithbone. The telltale shimmering near the Eldar ruins announced the arrival of yet another Dark Angels Terminator squad...this one led by Belial himself. Frost also ordered Marbo to engage the Dire Avengers in the center of the battlefield. Belial and his squad opened fire on the giant Eldar Daemon, blasting chunks of magma out of it's body. Supporting fire from the devastators killed 4 more guardians near the daemon. Marbo threw his Demolitions pack at the Dire Avengers, but they took cover and managed to avoid the blast. The blast did however, take out one of the warlocks nearby. Missiles continued to streak across the battlefield from the Dark Angels Cyclone launchers and 2 more guardians on the right flank fell in the resulting blasts. Frost's men continued to hold the barricade and the marines were still safeguarding the targeting system.
The Eldar moved back away from Belial and his group as the jetbikes flew over the Terminators to pour more fire in from behind. The Wraithlords also advanced into the ruins with the Dire Avengers in order to find cover. The eldar let loose with a torrent of shurikens into Belial's squad. The Terminator armor deflected most of the shots, but a couple manged to find their way into vital systems on the armor, wounding two of the marines. However, the Apothecary jumped into quick action and saved one of the marines. Belial also took a shot that cut into his leg. In the middle, the eldar pathfinders (we had forgotten about them first turn, so we will simply say they were hidden til now) opened fire on Marbo as The Eldar Farseer cast Mindwar. Under this combined storm, Marbo fell. The Wraithlords attempted to blast the Vendetta out of the sky, but were unable to find their mark. Finally, 3 more Tactical marines fell to fire from the Dire Avengers and the guardians on the right flank.
End Turn 2: DA/IG - 4 points (2 objectives, 1 Heavy support kill/First Blood for the Falcon); Eldar - 1 point
The Terminators were now almost to the enemy lines in support of Belial. Meanwhile, the Tactical squad now down 4 marines, withdrew to hold the targeting system so that the Terminators could move further forward. The vendetta also offloaded it's passengers and then went into Hover mode as it approached the ruins in the middle of the field. Belial's squad opened fire on the Avatar as they advanced wounding the Avatar yet again. The Avatar then gave a mighty below before Lascannons and missiles from the devastator squad tore it apart. Cyclones also tore into the already damaged Wraithlord blowing another hole in the Wraithbone. 2nd Veteran squad opened fire on the dire avengers in the Chimera wreckage and manged to kill 3.
The eldar responded by bladestorming Belial as the Farseer doomed them. 2 more Terminators fell as Belial took a blast straight to the face...yet still Belial stood. The rest of the Eldar opened fire on the 2nd Veterans killing all but 3. A lucky shot alos killed one of the advancing terminators on the Right flank.
End Turn 3: DA/IG -4 points; Eldar -1 point
Belial and his squad crashed into the guardians tearing through them with ease. In the middle, the terminators that had been advancing from the left flank assaulted the dire avengers and destroyed them. The Vendetta and Devastators also fired on the damaged Wraithlord finally bringing it down. On the right flank, the terminators continued to close as the remaining veterans threw their demolitions charge and fired with melta guns killing another 2 dire avengers.
The Eldar were now greatly depleted and focused their fire on the Terminators and 2nd veterans. The veterans finally fell, and another terminator from Belial's squad fell leaving only Belial and the Apothecary. The left flank terminators lost 2 terminators to the combined fire of the pathfinders and the remaining wraithlord and seer council. The right flank terminators lost 3 to the bright lance and the sheer volume of shurikens.
End Turn 4: DA/IG - 6 points (+1 point for killing the Wraithlord and as we called it here, I got linebreaker too); Eldar - 1 point
We called at turn 4 simply because the Eldar were about to be assaulted by three groups of terminators and had lost too much firepower to stop it. This would have led to the inevitable destruction of the other group of guardians as well as likely the pathfinders. This would have only left the seer council, a Wraithlord, and a depleted group of Avengers in the Eldar backfield with no one on the Eldar objective. The Eldar would have not been able to recover and likely would have taken even more damage from my shooting phase as there were still 3 missile launchers, 5 lascannons, and an autocannon in range to tear up possibly the Wraithlord and likely the Avengers. At the end, my opponent just pulled to much of his army away from his objective to try and deal with Belial. This put him out of position and by the time he realized that the other terminators had closed, it was too late to reposition or to do anything to stop me.
I like the narrative style, very cool. Not that it mattered here, but the objectives are 3 points each (all three secondary objectives = 1 primary objective)
ReplyDeleteAlso just curious, since I have Eldar, what do you think his best and worst performers were? Did he not bring enough stuff, not the right stuff? Playing aside, is there anything he could have done to his list, do you think, to give himself a better chance?
ReplyDeleteI told him to drop the Falcon and bring a third Wraithlord. I literally kept pouring shots into the Wraithlords for three turns before I knocked one down. The Falcon was easy to kill by comparison.
ReplyDeleteI also told him to drop some guardians and drop the pathfinders entirely and maybe see about bringing Eldrad, or at least another farseer and possibly adding a third group of Dire Avengers or guardians (The guardians would add another heavy weapon, so I leaned more towards this, but he made a good point about Bladestorm with Doom).
Besides the force he brought (which wasn't bad honestly), his biggest issue was lack of aggression. He was down an objective from the very beginning as we each started with one each, and I captured a second one right off the bat. He never tried to contest or even advance on my objectives, and he didn't have the firepower to even think about trying to table me, so it was a lost cause for him. I told him he needed to play less conservatively and advance those Wraithlords and use the bikes to contest my objectives. He also wasted too many shots trying to hit my Flyer and lacked the ability or firepower to deal with the vendetta effectively. So, I suggested an Aegis line with quad gun, but he wasn't sold on it.