News:

For the most up to date reports about what is going on with the forum, and the latest topics of interest, throw us a like on Facebook, and if you're wanting some light banter with the seasoned and spiced members, join the Second Sphere Members Group.

Main Menu

Mann's Sanctum - 1850 pts Dark Eldar vs Imperial Guard

Started by crisis_vyper, September 09, 2012, 04:10:24 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

crisis_vyper

Heya, this time I am trying a slightly different narrative for my Dark Eldar battle report as I will be taking the view of the winner of the battle instead of my own character's view as I just like to mix things up a bit.

Lord Commisar Scared Mann looks upon the battlefield in this forsaken sector of the citycalled Vilograd. Despite the onslaught of the Eldar offensive taxing the already overstretched Imperial defensive line, but the Inquisiton has

BigToof

Hi Crisis,
Looks like the beginning of a neat report.
Interested to see how this plays out, although you seem to given hints as to it's eventual outcome?
In any case, looking forward to seeing how this plays out.

Best,
-BT
BigToof Points:

Cammerz: 8
Waaaghpower: 1
The Man They Call Jayne: 3
Mabbz: 6
Archon Sharrek: 3

crisis_vyper

Turn 2
Lord Commisar Mann soon received information that his location is now drawing some of the Eldar pirates in larger numbers. His men are the droplets of blood, and the Eldar pirates are the sharks that are now congregating upon the scent of his men. His men would have to move out to prevent themselves from being outflanked by the superior speed of the Eldar pirates while pressing on their advantage of firepower. Several of the xenos vehicle went up in flames and are crashing from the firepower of the Hammer of the Emperor. But alas it is not to last, as the screaming jets of the Eldar aircraft blasted in the air, followed soon by the chaotic cacophany of missiles whistling towards their targets and detonating, causing much havoc.

As he turned back, he was greeted by the sight of mutilated men, some still very much alive and will have to bear the agonies of a painful death. The Xenos weaponry is such that there is not even a single crater from the missile impacting upon its target. Techno-sorcery such as these are always the stuff of nightmares for men who are unfamiliar with them. Indeed some of his men are now running out in the open trying to gun down the Eldar boat-like skimmers but the dark sorceries of the Xenos envelops the vehicles in a shield of darkness causing his men to fire blindly into the darkness made manifest.


Imperial Guard
In his movement phase he moved his Chimera out from the alley and also some of his Guardsmen out to try and gun down my vehicles, while other elements of his army are now attempting to move to close the gap in the defenses that I have made with my opening volley. In the shooting phase he managed to gun down my Ravager (d'oh!) and immobilized one of my Raiders and also one of my Warrior Venoms.

Dark Eldar


In my turn, my Razorwings came in and with that I planned for my big offensive to come into being.  My Wych raider moved 6" and disembarked my wyches and the Archon for some beat-face moments. In the shooting phase one of the Razorwing attempted to shoot the Leman Russ but did nothing. As for the other one, it managed to wipe out the largest blob away which makes me happy. My shooting also managed to kill off the missile launchers heavy weapons team and also the Lascannon heavy weapons team. In the assault phase, I managed to pull my charge towards the last heavy weapons team and wipe it out.

Turn 3
Before long the situation has gone from bad to worse, and the Eldar are pushing even further into his defenses and he knew that they will have to fight even harder. If given a choice he would have called for a retreat, but two things prevented him from doing so; the Inquisition and the Eldar pirate's speed. His men are more important to him than his own life, but his men would not leave him as well.

"Lord Commisar, the situation is getting from bad to worse and we need to retreat!" The young commander is a capable commander and indeed have deduced the same thing that the Commisar had thought about as well.
"No Riez, we must hold. If we run they will shoot us in the back and take us prisoners....and being captured by them is as bad as being caught by the Chaos cultists. Our men must hold." Mann's voice is calm and yet resolute.
"Yes sir." Riez gave a crisp reply and command the rest of his men to hold their ground. Mann's only hope that there is a miracle somehow that would come their way.


Imperial Guard


As you can from this pic, this is essentially what is left at the point of the Imperial Guard at the time (barring the reserve squad that I will let Steve enter from reserves later). With his remaining men he proceed to try and shoot at as much vehicles that he could see, and he managed to gun down the other Warrior Venom.He also managed to strip two hull points from the Wych Raider, and killed a single Wych.

Dark Eldar

Seeing that victory is in my grasp I moved a few guys out from the craters and immobilized vehicles and moved them to the closest objectives while also moving my Beastmasters out to go in for the kill. Both my flayers went off the table edge and are back in reserves.

In the shooting phase, I tried to kill the Leman Russ and the Chimeras but I failed in both respects. But at least there is one thing that would make me happy; the death of the Leman Russ via haywire. And I know it will kill it too.

But fate decided to be a bitch to me and alas they failed (even with that reroll from their fleet)

Turn 4
"Sir! We have located what looked like their leader sir!" Riez's response gave the opening that the Lord Commisar needed. If he could decapitate the head, the body will surely fail.
"Riez, give the command to kill that leader and make sure that it remains that way!!!!"
"Yes sir!" Before long a Chimera drove past them and as soon as it is in position unleashed its firepower towards the target.

Mann wished that his gambit would work, and the cheer of his men confirmed his greatest hopes. Suddenly the flow of the battle have changed, and the other Eldar arr visibly shaken by this turn of events. This is the time, Mann said to himself.

"Alright men!!!!! Show these Xenos what we are made of!!!!!"


Imperial Guard

Well, that derpy charge is all that is needed for Steve to take advantage of and proceed to murder my Archon to death (damn you Str 6 miltilasers!!!!) but the majority of the wyches are unharmed (WTF moment for me). It is about here that Steve found his remaining men hidden behind a bag and he facepalmed at the fact. He was about to say that they are dead, but I said that they could come in as reserves for the next turn. So with that a bunch of 10 guys are now on my list of stuff to kill once they come out. Little did I know how they would have impacted the game.

Dark Eldar

My flyers are back in the game from reserves and my bunch of Beastmasters are now marching out to kill the stragglers that I have left out there intentionally so that I could leapfrog to the Top middle objective.



In the shooting phase I managed to kill another blob of infantry and also managed to kill one of the Chimeras. In the assault phase I charged the stragglers with the Beastmasters and killed so much. I consolidated towards the objective. I also charged the Leman Russ and killed it with Haywire.

Turn 5
"Are you guys in need of help?" Mann's combead sprang to life and he recognized it as that of Sergeant Ortiz, one of the platoon's most difficult sergeants to deal with. But his voice now sounded like the singing of angels to Mann's ears.
"About time! Move onto our right flank and flush them out!!!!"

Mann started to experience an euphoric feeling, one that says that he and his men are getting out of this alive. This filled him with such righteous fury that he began singing hymns of victory.


Imperial Guard
We rolled for nightfight and nightfighting is not activated.



His reserves came in and it was then I realized that I am in trouble. Those guns can now contest the objective on the top left, or even capture it. My worst fears are realized when he shot them and they managed to kill enough till only one was left. That lone Warrior ran like a little bitch after that.....crap for me.

He attempted to shoot down my flyers with his Veterans but did not managed to do so. His other stuff attempted to shoot at the last remaining raider, but failed to do anything.

Dark Eldar
Well, crap. That was an unexpected drawback but one I could handle if I take the center objective which I managed to do so with the Beastmasters. With that I tried to take down both the Leman Russ and the Chimera, but I failed to so. I attempted to charge the chimera with the wyches, but a number of them died via overwatch and only one grenade went through.

At this point of the game, I have 10 VP to his 2VP and I will win by a large margin by this point.


With that we rolled to see if there is a turn 6 and to my horror.......there is a turn 6. Ok....this is when I really know when this are going downhill for me.

Turn 6
"Hurry we must make haste!!!" Mann shouted to his men and they are now running to take advantage of the unique string of events coming their way. Before long he could see that the flow is truly going in their favour.  He saw a Skimmer flying pass and he ordered his men to fire at the Xenos. He then threw his melta bomb and to his surprise his meltabomb detonated and caused the vehicle to be wrecked. As the passengers of the downed skimmer crawled out, he proceed to charge at them. His men followed him, unsure of what the Commisar is doing. But at least they are surviving better when they are with the commissar as so far his actions are falling into place as if the Emperor is there guiding his righteous fury.

Imperial Guard
Seeing that he could potentially tie this somehow, he went ahead and ran like there is no tomorrow and try to capture as much objectives as he could. In Assault phase his Command platoon and the Lord Commisar threw a meltabomb at my Raider and caused it to explode, killing the wyches along with it.

His Leman Russ and Leman Russ Executioner killed the Wych raider and also killed the Beastmasters including the Baron. Ouch.





Dark Eldar
I tried a last gambit of running my Kabalite Warriors to the central objective and try to capture it while I try to shoot the rest of his other stuff. My Razorwings managed to make the ten-man squad to buckle and make a run for it.



If we end the game now, it will be a tie. But alas the Dice gods favour Steve and gave him another turn to do stuff.

Turn 7
Like a whirling typhoon of rage the Commisar chased the retreating Eldar and shouting insults at them. His men are now energized by this sudden bloodlust and they too found the courage within themselves to roar and gun down their enemies.

"DIE YOU MOTHERFRAKKERS DIE!!!!!!!!!!!" Lord Commisar opened fire and managed to gun down one of them with his bolt pistol. As if on cue the others fired and before long, the Eldar are vapourized by the resounding fusillade of firepower. As the commissar climbed up on the hill, his men stopped to see him triumphantly roared his challenge.

"FLY BACK TO YOUR MOTHER'S WOMB YOU XENOS MOTHERFRAKKERS!!!!LET IT BE KNOWN THAT I, LORD COMMISSAR SCARED MANN IS YOUR BANE!!!!"

The image of a triumphant Lord Commissar is made even more triumphant by the Eldar flyers flying away from him away from the battlezone into the sunset, as if they understood that messing with the Lord Commisar is unwise.




Imperial Guard
Even though none of us have anything else to shoot per se, but we still have to roll for nightfighting and we got it.....

He attempts to shoot down my flyer with the Chimera but failed to do so. He also moved his Platoon Command towards the Top Middle objective and managed to capture it.

Dark Eldar
I could not do anything but to fly away.

With that the game is over.

Post-game and Afterthoughts
In the end of the day, only seventeen men out of seventy-three men of the Cadian survived the onslaught of the Dark Eldar forces against the position that is forevermore known as Mann's Sanctum. The position was reinforced after several days and was resupplied with heavy bolters, autocannons and mortars bringing the Cadian 3569th to a 25-man understrength platoon. In accordance of the Inqusitorial Mandate; 'No one step back' Lord Commissar Man was ordered to fortify the building and defend it to the last bullet and last man.

Supplies were brought in via the trench or by courier animals, defying the Dark Eldar air raids and techno-sorcery. Nevertheless, food and especially water was scarce and the hellish conditions of the battlefield forced the soldiers to be on their guard as the platoon was subjected to harrasing fire and audio playbacks of screaming people every night in order to try and break their resistance.The Dark Eldar attacked the building several times a day, but every time they are pushed back. It is even reported that Mann's men had to use lulls in the fighting to run out and kick over the heaped piles of Xenos corpses so that they could not be used as cover by the next round of attackers. Eventually by the 5th month, the position is relieved by the arrival of the Iron Fist chapter.

Mann's Sanctum became a symbol of incredibly stubborn and dogged resistance of the Imperial forces during the Battle of Vilograd and was rebuild after the conflict as a shrine for the fallen in the battle. Lord Commissar Mann was awarded the title of Hero of the Imperium for his actions of single-handedly holding off the flank of the defenders for the decisive victory of the Battle of Vilograd, and in extension the second phase of the Luskia Reclamation Conflict.


Results
Dark Eldar: 6 VP
Imperial Guard: 9 VP

Imperial Guard Victory!

Well, that game was epic as hell if I have to say so myself. In this game I believe that I have made a few vital mistakes;

1) Hide those Beastmasters well - During the first turn, I could have hid them much better and those casualties cost me dearly later on in the game when I have to use the unit much more aggressively to hold the top middle objective

2) Should have put in the extra effort to kill the vehicles - I was so concentrated on killing the infantry elements that I forgotten that the killer of my lists are the vehicles. They did the most damage and I should have focused my attention to them more.

3)Bad Maneuvering of the Flyers - In the last few turns I overextended my flyer's movement to the point that I am unable to do much with them. They also have a large footprint that causes problems when they are in close proximity with each other.

Of course there are the 'Derp' moments in the form of the failed charge by my Wyches and also the Random Game Length.

As for my opponent, Steve did the best he could in the position and triumphed out of it as a result of a few 'DERP' moments and profited from it. It is quite an impressive feat to go from only 2 VP in the game to a respectable 9 VP in three turns. His plan at the late phases of the game is true to the tenet of 'Play to the Mission' as he used the Secondary objectives to his advantage and took my apparent victory from my hands. Kudos to you Steve, and I would love to play against you again.

P.S: And yeah, the name of the Lord Commisar is indeed Scared Mann according to Steve. :-P

BigToof

Hi Crisis,
Loved the new style with the opponent's POV.  Good to see that you're branching out, and I also liked your description of the meta.  I can see how having a new squad just showing up on turn 5 (now everything shows up on turn 4), would really change things around.  Never thought one unit of guardsmen could make such a massive difference.
In any case, hoping to see another rep soon :)

Best,
-BT

P.S.  Karma'd!
BigToof Points:

Cammerz: 8
Waaaghpower: 1
The Man They Call Jayne: 3
Mabbz: 6
Archon Sharrek: 3

crisis_vyper

Quote from: BigToof on September 13, 2012, 11:51:04 AM
Hi Crisis,
Loved the new style with the opponent's POV.  Good to see that you're branching out, and I also liked your description of the meta.  I can see how having a new squad just showing up on turn 5 (now everything shows up on turn 4), would really change things around.  Never thought one unit of guardsmen could make such a massive difference.
In any case, hoping to see another rep soon :)

P.S.  Karma'd!

Thanks for the karma! :)

That lone squad actually managed to be the MVPs in my opinion. If this is tournament play, I would say they are destroyed, but this is a friendly game to begin with so I let it slide (no point being an epic ass in friendlies (except for rules that do not make sense in any way)). Thanks to this game, Steve and I are friendly rivals, so there will be more Lord Commissar Mann in the foreseeable future.

I do like the use of two flyers, but at the same time I also like the support of two ravagers on the ground at the same time. I would also need a surefire way of destroying things with my flyers if I dumped the Ravagers. I am tempted to take like three Voidravens.....:shifty:

Wyches never truly mesh well with my style to begin with, and I only took them in 5th edition because Incubi by themselves and the Archon is not as viable and they come with their own grenades.  With 6th edition it only made my determination of not using wyches even stronger than before, and I am happy to drop them out from my future lists. Besides I love the Kabal side of things. ;)

As for the replacement of my assault element, I believe that the Incubi and the Huskblade Archon are perhaps more suited to what I truly want on the tabletop. With Allies I believe that I can really make my own 'Xenos' Paladins in the form of a Farseer casting Forewarning and/or Prescience and/or Misfortune on the the Incubi and kill even more stuff. >:D

Now to figure out how do I make evil Warwalkers and other nonsense so that it fits with my entire theme.......