Battle 8 of those fought as part of my Epic War! Campaign. To find out more about the Campaign, please see this thread;

viewtopic.php?f=14&t=24706

Which units were used for this battle can be found on the pre-campaign force lists in the same thread. To help, the Marine force used was under code C77, the Eldar E7.

The battle was fought on city terrain (E15 on Campaign Map). The Marine army was on First Fire orders and the Eldar on Advance. The Marine player could deploy an extra 15cm forward of the standard deployment zone and would automatically have initiative on turn 1 of the battle. The Marines can set up their defences anywhere on their half of the board. The Eldar set up within the standard deployment zone.

Both sides fielded armies worth 4,000 points each. The Eldar force had been untested in battle, while the Marines had tasted success in conflict (see Battle 4). This meant they had a slightly depleted force, but they were only down by the equivalent of 200 points given that they were 5 Land Speeders and an HQ stand down, To secure a win, one side must score 45VPs.

Deployment:

The Eldar player spread his forces across a wide spread of the board, while the Marine player placed most emphasis on the centre and left flanks. The Marine player set up entrenchments for both Land Raider companies to advance into. Troops on both sides of the board would look to deploy into the buildings at either side of the central highway, while the Warlock and Warlord titans would go head to head on the left flank. Initiative would prove critical to both players...

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Turn 1:

Marines win initiative and units from both sides sweep forward and take up positions at either side of the central highyway. Eldar Jetbikes swarm forward to intercept the Land raiders on the left flank where they engage in a deadly firefight. With fate on their side, the princeps in Warlord are first to react, unleashing the titan's full armoury of Quake and Volcano cannon on their opposite number. Witch sight and holo-fields (which are less effective on First Fire) fail to prevent the weapons finding their mark. The Quake Cannon punches a hole deep in the Warlock's reactor. There is a moment's silence, a flash of light, then an earth-shattering roar as the Warlock is engulfed in a spectacular explosion of red and yellow magma. Without having so much as moved, the Warlock is reduced to a pile of molten slag. A tremor of shock reverberates throughout the Eldar ranks while a roar of victory fills the communicators of the Marine ranks. The Eldar Tempests pop up and attempt to return the favour but - perhaps shaken by the loss of their talismatic Titan - many of their shots go astray and the Warlord's shields stand up to the punishment meated out by these super-heavy skimmers.
Having flown into stationery Land Raiders, the Jet-bikes are brought crashing to the ground by Lascannon. Only one of the Jet-Bikes defies the odds and destorys a solitary Land Raider. At the end of Turn 1, the Marines feel very confident...


Marines: 30VPs
Eldar: 15VPs

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Turn 2:

The Warlord Titan trades fire with the Tempests and takes two down. Once again, the shields stand up to the heavy barrage of fire directed upon the titan. Grav-Tanks unleash their fury on the Land Raider copmany on the left flank, destorying just enough to break them. Meanwhile, both sides have dug in at either side of the central freeway and trade fire. Nothing breaks other than a solitary Prism Cannon. A squadron of Land Speeders engage Swooping Hawks and eliminate them, but they in turn are broken by Eldar guns after close combat is resolved.

Marines: 33 VPs
Eldar: 25 VPs

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Turn 3:

The Warlord Titan takes cover behind buildings to replenish his downed shields before the Tempests can find their mark.
The freeway firefight continues and the casualties on both sides slowly mount up. With some units in reserve still to fire, the Marines focus all of their remaining firepower upon a lone Tempest who has had the temerity to instigate a pop-up attack. Several volleys of rockets light up the sky around the Tempest. The superheavy soaks up an unbelievable amount of firepower, its thick hull protecting it against the wrath of the Devastators. But one last rocket pierces the armour and the vehicle is blown apart, signalling another significant victory for the Imperium. The Eldar can only respond by breaking a lone JetBike. Their Warhost hanging by a thread, the Eldar avoid an overwhelming defeat and hang on for another turn...

Marines:42VPs
Eldar:27 VPs

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Turn 4:

Eldar Exarchs swoop forward and steal an objective from the Marines, this signalling a 10 point swing in the battle (objective 8 on the freeway remains unclaimed). The Eldar onslaught continues as they hit the remaining unbroken Land Raider company, and inflict sufficient casualties to gain the desperately required points.
The Marines meanwhile manage to break a Lascannon battery and focus the remainder of their energies upon the now-fragile Warhost. Despite protection from the buildings, the Warhost is unable to resist the overwhelming power of the Devastators and the inevitable occurs... the host breaks and the Marines secure another much needed victory!

Marines: 47VPs
Eldar: 40VPs

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Their own defences hamper the Marines from pursuing the fleeing Eldar force, but they do manage to eliminate the lumbering Dark Reapers as they attempt to escape the battlefield. This chalks up another important 3 VPs for the campaign.

And now for some random pics from the battle!

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And a few more pics.

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In the write up, you mention that the Warlock Titan was on first fire orders, but I thought that the entire Eldar army had to have advance orders on the first turn, or have I misunderstood? If it was free choice, then it was a tactical mistake to put the Warlock Titan on first fire, especially with the Warlord on the same flank. The Warlord out guns the Warlock at distance, so trying to compete with it during the first fire segment is rarely a good idea.

The best way to take out Warlord Titans, I find, is mass Falcon fire, followed by the Tempests. I also find that it's usually a good idea to attack with the Tempests after every other skimmer in the Eldar army has made its pop-up attack, in order to reduce return fire, as then many Marine units take the opportunity to shoot at the Falcons, and/or Prism Cannons instead.

Anyway, those are just a few thoughts about how the game went, as the Space Marines chalk about a well deserved win. Curse them .

Thanks for the report.

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Not that I'm aware of, and I had a quick look at the rules, but couldn't find anything. That said, I'd be happy to stand corrected.

The placing of the Eldar titan against the Warlock was quite deliberate, we both fancied having a Titan head-to-head to recall the glory days of Adeptus Titanicus.

With hindsight, there was a trick missed by the Warlock titan however. The Warlock doesn't have to place an order until the relevant time. The order counter for First Fire was placed in the order phase and we knew it was a roll of the dice for initiative as to who would get the chance to do damage first. Had my opponent remembered the order counter rule he could have advanced to increase the effectiveness of the holo-fields or charged to get out of the way altogether. Still, it was a fun start to the game (for me at least) and has really tightened up the campaign for the next and final battle...

Agree with you about using the Grav Tanks/Prism Cannon then the Tempests, that is our usual modus operandi; anyone new to the game should take note!

Thanks again for taking an interest!

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You made mention of the orders in your first post in this thread. Was it a cut and paste error from a previous thread introduction perhaps? It would make sense then.



I haven't played since 2008, so I keep forgetting rules like this as well. I really need to start playing again.

Even so, I still wouldn't have opted for first fire orders in that situation. The only way I'd go toe to toe wth a Warlord Titan would be to take a Phantom Titan with Lascannons and Pulsars, but I don't like that layout, as it's horribly expensive, and feels very one dimensional.

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Ah, gotcha! The First Fire and Advance rules relate to campaign orders. The campaign orders can affect set up on the first turn but has no effect on what orders the players use on their individual units. Sorry about that, it was poorly worded and should have been better explained.



Hope you do! I look forward to reading a battle report from you!



Yep, despite the weaponry pictured, the Warlord was armed with twin Pulsars. We were very lazy and stuck to the old rules of one cost for Titans and you get to pick what weaponry you want to arm it with. Not NetEpic Gold approved... Sorry people - must do better!

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That's more my mistake than yours. I haven't read the campaign rules since you first posted them, and had forgotten about how they interact with the battles in question.



Don't get your hopes up though, there's more chance of a year passing in Scotland without any dreich than there is my actually playing a game before the end of 2013.



Heresy! How could you use the old Space Marine system ? It doesn't really matter to be honest, as long as you both enjoy the game, that's all that counts.

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Yes, we have cherry picked a few of the rules. Another big one is that we don't use snap fire, and that skimmers stay popped up for the rest of the FF phase. Hmm, maybe I should stop before I start alienating the NE:Gold purists...

So far as "a year passing in Scotland without any dreich" goes, I'd settle for a week at the moment! The weather's puir mingin' ra noo!

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Another nice battle report Bissler, old rules rule! hehe