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Joined: Wed Aug 10, 2005 11:44 pm
Posts: 1891
Location: Katy, Republic of Texas
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Battle Report ? Elysians vs. Biel Tan
Ok, it was almost like an Inaugural ball, except that the music was better. To the strains of Wagner?s ?Ride of the Valkyries? on the store CD system, we flew on.
Elysian Order of Battle
The Hardened Vets for this game will have the same stats as SM Scouts, except their armor save is +6 and they come with Scout, Infiltrate, and Sniper. The were also costed at 50 points each.
My list is:
1 x Regimental HQ, 1 x SC, 8 x infantry, 5 x Valkyries
2 x Storm troopers, 8 x infantry, 4 x Valkyries
3 x Drop Troop companies, 1 x Command, 8 x infantry, 2 x Hardened Veterans
2 x Vulture squadrons, 4 x Vultures each
We've agreed to not use aircraft, lest I suffer the depredations of his Phoenix bombers..
Biel Tan Order of Battle
1 x Avatar
1 x Windrider host, 11 Vipers, Wildrider, Farseer
1 x Windrider host, 11 Vipers, Wildrider
1 x Windrider host, 5 Vipers, Wildrider
1 x Windrider host, 11 Vipers, Wildrider, Farseer
Troupes de jour:
3 ?x Guardian Troupes, 6 Guardians, 3 Wave Serpents
1 x Falcon Troupe, 3 Falcons, 2 Firestorms
1 x Fire Prism Troupe, 3 Fire Prisms
1 x Engines of Vaul, 2 Cobras
Deployment
So, as each of us were interested in seeing what tricks the other was up to, large spaces between our units seemed like a good idea. I must admit that I was puzzled by the large concentration of Eldar in the upper right, but realizing that they could quickly shift to just about anywhere they wanted in one turn, assumed that John was attempting to get me to spread out so that he could chew me up a piece at a time, or quickly position himself on a flank and then shoot up my line.
I put a Vulture squadron way out just to keep him honest, with the expectation that they?d probably only get one turn of shooting off before they crashed.
The rest of my plan revolved around trying to get up to the cluster of objectives around the woods and keep my infantry in the woods long enough to contest some objectives. Looking at what I brought to the table and what John had, didn?t give me a warm fuzzy feeling.
Turn One
So, we rolled to see who went first, the Eldar won, but elected to have the Elysians initiate the action. So I did. The Vultures on the right did just aces?literally, rolled a 1, then another for a pair. Not a good way to kick things off. Still I fired at the Fire Prisms because I have the range and killed one, breaking the unit. I think John?s comment was something along the lines of:
?So, what?s the range on those things??
?120 cm?
?Great!?
Just to show some sympathy with my initial rolls, John also decided to miss his first activation, however, his 45 cm range did not let him respond in kind to any of my units.
Not wanting to let their squadron mates to have all the fun, the Vultures on the left single up a little bit and wipe out all the Wave Serpents in a Guardian host, thus ensuring that they get to walk to the evenings festivities.
After that, we both moved up units to prepare for the next turn?s flight trials.
Turn Two
I think we both sense that this turn was going to be a doozey. I decide to commit my drop companies and before the Wave Serpents on the left can say ?pass the cheese dip?, a lot of unexpected company shows up.
The Eldar get to go first and they launch a wild ride deep into my lines and line up several shots on my leftmost Vulture unit. Quite unexpectedly, they make all of their armor rolls. In an impromptu display of elation, I give up all my sportsmanship scores and celebrate their continued existence (stuck both fists in the air and rather loudly exclaimed, ?YESSSS!?).
Wishing to continue the punishment of the Eldar?s good deed, I triple the right most Vultures over to the others placing them within 45 cm. I then retain the initiative with the Vultures who were shot at by the Eldar, and to be fair just a little bit torqued at getting their paint scorched, and they shoot one of the sky Harlies to the ground.
John struggles to move his large accumulation of units on my right back into the impending action in the center.
I take my Regimental HQ over to the Vyper unit flying around with my Vultures and let the Valkyries speak. They speak loudly and break the Vyper unit which then zooms over to the Eldar furthest objective on my left.
The broken Vyper unit is looking too tempting, so my leftmost Storm trooper unit bugs out, speakers blaring all the way and unloads a lot of primitive Imperial technology on the broken unit. The level of technology is irrelevant and they all go down in flames.
John continues to move stuff over to the center while I am flying Storm troopers into objectives with woods like their life depends on it. It does, but I don?t tell them that until later.
Big Scrum: Ok, by now, John and I think we?re ready for the Drop Troop Jamboree near his objective. So I engage with the drop company at the back and hope that the supporting companies are able to lend enough supporting fire to make this worthwhile. As my guys start lofting tennis balls at the Wave Serpents on the way in, at least one of them remarks that it would be nice to have something besides sports equipment to bring to the party.
After all the noise and flash (11 units assaulting, 22 firing in support), I destroy the rearward most Wave Serpent unit and the intermingled Vypers. John in return wipes out everybody except the command stand, who remembers their cross country training and books it out of there.
Not happy leaving well enough alone, John returns fire fight goodness with the front Wave Serpent unit (who are not in a good mood) and wipes out the leftmost drop company. So, now I have one company standing out in the middle of the polo grounds, wondering what they?re going to do next.
I decide to move them closer to the parading Vypers flying over where all the dead bodies are, and the sniper markmen take the farseer out of his seat with a headshot and the autocannons take down another bike. The Avatar looks at his watch, then over at the remaining farseer and wonders if he?s going to get into the game.
So at the end of Turn 2, I realize that although I?ve hit pretty hard,all my one shot ?wonder? weapons are gone and that the biggest gun I have is an autocannon. Unfortunately, the Eldar have their own wonder weapons and they?re not one shot, nor are they the same size as an autocannon?they?re much bigger than that (i.e. Cobras, Falcons, Firestorms).
I?m thinking that Turn 3 is going to turn into one of those ?revenge? type movies and I?m going to be the one getting revenged, if I could be so bold as to completely misappropriate the use of the word, revenge. I suspect that history shall be unkind anyway, so I shouldn?t worry too much about casually destroying the English language.
Turn Three
So the race is on. I decide that a lot of heat is coming my way and that some preservation of force should be considered. However, all those guys with sports equipment are pretty much walking, so their going to have to do it the hard way.
The Storm trooper unit hunkers down in the woods, but unfortunately, the Eldar don?t really care what Smokey the Bear thinks and so the Storm troopers are wiped out to a man, leaving two Valkyries, who run back to the embarkation point a lot faster than they left.
The last drop company is looking at what appears to be a large swarm of killer bees only to discover it?s a lot of hot rodding Eldar on jet bikes and they?re not smiling (do they ever?). Needless to say, they go down as wood turns out to be pretty lousy body armor when the bad guys are shooting micro Frisbees like they?re going out of style. Very painful.
I attempt to send some shooty support of my own by moving the remaining Storm trooper unit over to help out, but in a return of special favors, I hit John?s Vyper unit seven times and he save six of them. He is much to gentlemanly to forfeit his sportsmanship points and instead gives me a big grin.
John also decides to show the Elysians how the Eldar deep strike and they place a couple of units deep in my backfield that I am unable to budge?because , wonder weapons no gots. So, he takes my Blitzkrieg, which was a bad play on my part. I flipped the coin on whether to sustain fire with just the Valkyries or do a single and unload the RHQ. I chose the Sustain and I?m not sure I would do that again.
So we look at the time, the store is closing and we have to pack it up. However, even though John doesn?t have a clear win yet, he?s going to wipe me out in Turn 4, so I concede. Besides, he has me on points.
After Action Report
So this turned out to be very similar to your typical ambush scenario. I jumped on the Eldar very hard, but it turned out not to be hard enough. The Eldar had enough discipline to recover well and then take me out, unit by unit with their superior firepower.
All in all, a very enjoyable game and I look forward to the next with the updated list.
Great game, John!
_________________
Honda
"Remember Taros? We do"
- 23rd Elysian Drop Regiment
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