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Setup:
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Well, as this is a semi-competitive FAQ experiment, we tried to keep it as even as possible, with a big LoS blocking terrain in the center with a defensive line in back of both large sides. Rocks in the corners and trees scattered about.
Not too bad, but the major point of contention would be the very, very large manufactorum-like piece in the middle that hid things from even the Castellan's line of sight.
Deployment was fairly straightforward, with the Knights castling back with the Castellan surrounded by Guard and the Armigers to the flanks. The Gallant was put as far forward as possible.
On the other side, I put the Taloi as far up as I could, then guarded my flanks with the Razorwings and put the boats in the middle. As I can't Deep-Strike on turn 1 anymore, I decided to let the Ravagers swing in the wind.
I won the roll to go first (yay!), but then my opponent SEIZED THE INITIATIVE (doh!).
Well... here comes the pain train...
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Prologue
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"Y'stral, are you sure about this?"
The spindly frame of Archon Y'stral of the Kabal of the Grisly Hand swiveled on the deck of his Raider throwing a look at his Dracon (and formerly Farseer) Thielbane. The Archon threw his hands up in mock frustration and said,
"Thiel, Thiel, Thiel, we've gone over this DOZENS of times."
"Twice, actually."
"Twice, Dozens, Whatever. Listen, it's simple: we've got these Mon-Keigh on the ropes with their comms all glitched out. We take the biggest prize possible and scoop it up for the Dark City. Can you imagine how much rep we're going to get if we bag ANOTHER bunch of the big bots?"
Thielbane tapped his hand nervously against his borrowed armor, trying his best to avoid the panaply of artfully arranged, but still very sharp, rows of spikes.
"I... just... I consulted the runes."
The eye-roll from the Archon was almost audible.
"The runes? The RUNES? Come on, Thiel, what are you going to trust? Some hocus-pocus scribbles or your best friend's gut?"
Thielbane stifled the standard response about how the Runes of the Seers were a type of highly reliable divination, but decided to cede this confrontation... for now.
"I just... want to let you know that this isn't going to be easy, the odds are..."
"Odds, schmodds. If I wanted to know the numbers, I'd ask the Haemo."
WIth that, Thielbane glanced over at X'Bella Le'Gosi. The waifish Eldar was floating amongst her bodyguard of masked Wracks, who were then dwarfed by the enormous trio of Taloi that glided through the air with silent purpose.
A shiver ran through him at the thought of the creatures unleashed. They looked ungainy, but Thiel had seen Bella's handiwork first-hand and it was not for the faint of heart.
Noting, but completely misreading his companion's involuntary response, Y'stral laughed and cackled, "Yeah, don't worry, I'm sure they'll be enough of the Haemo later to jump on when it's all said and done. I know you like 'em with some fight still in them."
Sighing, Thielbane was about to respond, but then heard the scraping of weapons as he saw the Wracks had all drawn weapons and were staring menacingly at the Kabal behind them, as if daring them to try.
Bella, on the other hand, had her head in her notes, scribbling away at whatever she was usually doing.
Before he could respond, Thielbane was interrupted by the Archon, who drew his blaster in an equally threatening manner and barked out, "What? What? You little four-armed freaks want to try something? Let's not forget who's in charge here!"
"Archon?" came a slightly trembling voice over the comms. Thielbane recognized it as his occasional love interest, Allonia. The once-Wych was now part of the Kabal's air force and Thielbane had congradulated himself on getting her in a safer and more prestigious position using his influence. Granted, it also had to do with her reflexes and skills. Both... inside and outside of the bedroom.
"What?" snarled Y'stral. "I'm busy putting some freaks in their place!"
"They're... advancing," came Allonia's wincing reply.
Thielbane and Y'stral both simultaneously jerked their heads up to see that yes, indeed the enormous Knights had made their move, and one of the enormous machines was lumbering forward, holding titanic versions of the armaments that the Space Marines carried.
Swearing and juping manically up and down, the Archon barked out, "Idiots! You see what you did! Now we're gonna take it from the rear! If we die, I know who's going to get turned inside out!"
Allonia switched off her comms and swallowed hard. That was bad timing indeed. From within her Razorwing, the battlefield seemed so far away, but she knew that there would be hell to pay if things didn't go swimmingly. There was a streak of pink-silver that zipped by her and she threw a glare up to see her rival, the far-too-pretty Ray'keth pass by in her own Razorwing, a mere hairsbreath away. Although not noticable by most Eldar, her Wych-trained reflexes allowed her to clearly see the not-so-subtle gesture that Ray'keth was throwing her way. Allonia's hand strayed to her weapon panel, and it took all of her control to not arm a barrage of Shatterfield missiles. No, no, it would take all of them to try and get out of this one. Then, she'd make Ray'keth pay. With interest.
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Turn 1: Imperial Knights
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Lord Raven sent out a semi-garbled barrage in Lingua-technis. Although it was his holy duty to defend the Manufactorum, the enormous building blocked most of his firing arcs. The Omnissiah could be a hard patron indeed.
Deciding to make the most of the situation, he mind-signalled his thralls forward, nodding in satisfaction as the Armigers moved forwards into position. He considered whether to awaken the mighty Raven Spirit of the Machine to its full power, but he considered his target: A mere single jetfighter.
An unworthy prey for his Dominus war-god.
Very well, a mere mundane barrage then...
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Allonia swore as the enormous Mon-Keigh machine swiveled it's guns towards her. Weaponry that could tear open a Wraithknight like paper lanced through the air and she closed her eyes as streams of fire and plasma tore through the sky, leaving sizzling arcs in their wake. More explosions thundered around her. What seemed like an eternity passed before she dared look again and surprisingly... she was alive. Her readouts alarmed with scattered damage up and down the fuselage, but nothing critical. Khaine himself must be looking out for her. Glaring with vengeance at the Mon-Keigh, she swore that she would make them pay.
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My opponent, having dastardly stolen the initiative, moves his Gallant out to the left and uses a Command Point to re-roll it's initial move to quite a bit forward. The Castellan, realizing that it can't see my big squad of boats, moves out to the left as well to look and see... Allonia's Razorwing.
That's not good, but it could be worse.
The Armigers go out to the flanks to get a look at all of my vehicles.
Realizing that I'm basically out in the open, I decide to try the new Strategem, paying 2 CPs to get a +1 cover save (yay?).
Shooting then goes out, with the Castellan going out, but... slowly.
Realizing that only 10 CPs are left, and that it's "only one plane," my opponent decides to fire standard (i.e. no Raven Stratagem nonsense) and surprisingly low-rolls against the Razorwing. Allonia gets away with only a few wounds lost!
Perhaps deciding that the Razorwing is blessed/cursed with nigh-invulnerability, my opponent switches targets to one of my Ravagers. The Armigers open up and... well... a 4+ save is a LOT better than a 5+ save. The Ravager in question takes 6 wounds, slowing it down a bit, but it's still alive!
Picture Caption: I'm... alive???
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Turn 1: Dark Eldar
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Commander Edgel Gearsworth had served as leader of the rag-tag bunch of Men-At-Arms for Lord Montgomery Raven for years. A simple man, he had the Omnissiah's blessing early on when a stray bit of shrapnel tore open his braincase, necessitating a good amount of useless grey matter being replaced with proper cogitators.
His men had said that it made his thinking and movement more like the Machine Spirits: precise, unyielding and accurate.
It did affect his pain receptors to an unfortunate degree, so it took Gearsworth a number of seconds to realize that it was not an error in his balance motivator, but he had indeed been blown off his feet by an insidious Xenos attack.
Actually, he corrected himself, his eye-lenses focusing back and forth over the battlefield, his feet had been blown off. And his legs. And most of his arm. But, most importantly, his sensor and comms relays were cut-off, meanining that he could not provide the necessary orders to his troops. Crawling his way towards the nearest service station on his bio-map, the aged Commander felt a slight tinge of regret in being unable to serve his function. But, he could at least look forward to finally obtaining more than 50% replacement tissue. A worthy reward for any servant of the Machine God.
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I've realized something... my opponent has moved his Castellan AWAY from his Commander, leaving it open to a potential assassination strike.
As Allonia's done pretty well, I move her out to go behind enemy lines and an inch from the Commander. The boats move out to the left to challenge the Gallant, and the Taloi move out to get within charge range of the Gallant. Ray'keth moves her Razorwing up to block the Gallant's path.
In the Shooting phase, I start throwing Dissie shots from my wounded Ravager into the Castellan, spooking my opponent enough to make him throw Shields on it (and knocking his pool down quite a bit). Rocking a 3++, I do no damage. Then the real shooting opens up with the Blasters taking a terrible toll against the Gallant (14 wounds on 3d6? I'll take that!). The Taloi put more Haywire shots in, doing a surprising amount of damage (7 more wounds!). As this means that the Gallant is rocked pretty hard, I decide to switch targets to the Armiger. I have just enough Dissie fire left-over to take it down.
Then, the Taloi charge in and do enough damage to mince the Gallant apart.
Oh, and as a side note, Allonia snipes out the Commander, insuring that orders will be the least of my worries coming up.
Picture Caption: You know where all of my opponent's luck went to? I think I found it.
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Turn 2: Imperial Knights
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X'Bella Le'Gosi floated through the Manufactorum making careful notes as her Wracks dispatched any remaining servitors that dare get in their way. Zero, the Acothyst leader of the Wracks, seemed to be taking great enjoyment in cleaving apart the mindless servents and Bella made a note to adjust his levels of rage injectors.
A gout of flame to her left suddenly intensified and she saw one of her Taloi fly through the air, spin and then land in a sizzling heap. Gasps echoed from the assembled Kabalities behind the trio of monsters, but Bella instead nodded at the other two Taloi, who quickly moved forwards, tearing off bits of the technically-dead creature and implanting new organs. With a swift injection of Panacea-virus, the fallen Talos sparked to life, floating again into the sky, gore dripping from it's wounds, but alive once more. Or at least, as alive as the Taloi technically were. Bella turned her head as she thought about the technicality of life and the separation between life, unlife, and the inanimate. Some time may have passed at this point as the Kabalites were yelling about something and limbs were flying through the air, but it was probably of little import.
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My opponent is a bit shocked at the loss of the Gallant AND the Armiger so early in the game, but is even more surprised that he's at 7 CPs! He makes a comment about how scary it is to have "only single digit CPs" in turn 2 (cue eye rolling).
In any case, the Castellan now has ample targets, moving back a bit behind his thin green line. After measuring, he realizes that there's no way to keep out of Talos charge range, so he just accepts it. The Armiger continues to move around the side, but his line of sight is severly blocked by the center ruin.
In the psychic phase, my opponent fails to smite Allonia's Razorwing.
He activates the Raven Strat (down to 4 CPs now) and after a lot of thought he decides to go after the Taloi. Which is... perhaps not the best idea as I handily make my 4++ against his Volcano Lance hits but take some severe damage from Cawl's Wrath. One of the Talos holds on with a single wound, but I manage through the torrent (barely) by making a rather ludicrious number of FNP rolls (6++ FTW!). The Guardsmen try and help, but with the limited number of shots without orders, they don't do much to the Taloi.
Picture Caption: That Talos should have been dead like twice already...
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Turn 2: Dark Eldar
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Lord Raven scowled as the beast he had slain returned somehow to it's feet. Xenos sorcery indeed. He stepped back, but his proximity warning went off and a silvery-pink aircraft flew by him, the wind buffering him forwards. He scowled and his sensors clearly showed a foul Xenos wench with ample mammaries. The creature had the audacity to make a mocking gesture at him that insinuated that his genitalia were of less-than-average size.
Raven chortled. Clearly the creature did not know what she was dealing with. He had replaced his nether-region long ago with a gigantic adamantium implant that would dwarf any Xenos' pathetic member. How dare she...
Screams from anaugmented throats brought his attention to the fore, and he swore in binary as he noticed that only the smoking boots of his front-line remained. Before he could log a complaint about the physical stability of his flesh-wall, the trio of Xenos monsters rolled forward with surprising speed. Vials of injectors depressed into their backs and they seemed to spasm with glee as they tore into his Castellan's legs. The enormous God-Machine buckled and Raven felt his very will being torn asunder.
How had things gone so wrong?
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Wait... it's turn two and NOTHING of mine has died yet?
What's going on?
I decide to press my luck and move in hard, pushing forward with basically everything.
Shooting is pretty harsh as I wipe away the screen of Guard and then throw shots into the Castellan (who activates shields and is down to 1 CP) hurting it pretty badly. I then assault in with the Taloi, who I give re-roll wounds and 2+ to hit.
They do more than a DOZEN wounds on the big guy, almost killing it, but my opponent uses his last CP to re-roll a save and keep it alive (so close!). The Castellan tries to stomp back, but it can barely hit and fails to wound.
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Turn 3: Imperial Knights
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Out of CPs, my opponent tries a last ditch effort to save some face.
He moves the remaining Guard up and decides to take out some Taloi.
In shooting, he manages to do so, dropping one of the big beasts and hurting another, but it's not enough.
Then, in an act of apathy, he charges a squad of the Guard in to assault the Taloi (ok...). He gets chewed up a bit in overwatch and then the monsters set their weapons to "puree" (i.e. 10 attacks each) and mince the Guardsmen. After morale, the remains of the squad flees.
Picture Caption: Man, without CPs, the Knights just... kind of fall apart.
