Battlefied

8' x 4', Eldar choice edge deployment.

Deployment:

Eldar kept both wraith upgraded guardians in the webway. The swooping hawk were placed in reserve to teleport.

Ad Mech cruiser was selected for the first turn.

Eldar rangers garrisoned on the hill off the wraithgate.

Infantry company garrisoned in the river and the vultures garrision the buildings near the beach.

Reamining deployment can be seen in the photo Gary has posted.

Here are some closer shots of the starting deployments

Eldar right flank

Eldar left flank

Turn 1:

Swooping Hawks teleport next to the manticores with 1 BM

Strategy Roll: Eldar

Barely landed the 'hawks move forward to engage the manticores, wiping them out without taking any casualties themselves. They consolidate into the rocks, putting the Leman Russes in their zone of control.

Nightwings 1 then swoop down and hit the vultures after the autarch had a stern word (using my reroll this early turned out very foolish!). 2 hits see one vulture die.

The ground began to shake as the Imperator ran forward eager to get into battle. Long range fire reached out to the waveserpent aspect host who lost 2 waveserpents and 1 fire dargon.

Falcon 1 then doubled up the beach to shoot at the vultures killing one more. The broken vultures retreated to their blitz.

The orbit of the Ad Mech cruiser now brought it over the battlefield. 2 lances bore down towards the void spinner, one missed but the first struck the engine of vaul that was destroyed by a critical hit to its grav generator.

Storm Serpent 2 was then order to march down to the fields near the warhounds. Some miss communication took place and the eov just moved forward into cover behind the wood.

Order to engage the swooping hawks in the rocks the rough rider commissar required confirmation from the legate. 1 horse man died as his horse bolted at the rough ground. The assault however was brutal with the riders wiping out the hawks with only one casualty themselves.

The shining spears doubled forward to hide on the road between the two sets of buildings.

The Leman Russes were then ordered to advance, but after another comms failure they stayed put and removed the BM.

Falcon 3 were then ordered to double forward but the comms blackout continued and they stayed put and cleared their BM.

The Baneblade company then marched out of the trees towards the centre of the battlefield.

Falcon 2 doubled forward and shot at the Baneblades producing 2 hits on one tank.

Shadowsword 2 drove onto the ford and shot at the waveserpent aspects, missing.

The waveserpent aspect then attempted to marshal, failed and removed all the blast markers they has acquired.

Thunderbolt 2 then swooped down and shot at the shinin spears, hitting 3 and killing 2.

The Up gunned guardians doubled forward to hide behind the bridge.

The warhound pack now doubled forward down the road. They let fly with all their weapons at Falcon 3, leaving one broken skimmer to retreat behind the woods.

Storm serpent one then marched to the far side of the central hill overlooking the Baneblades.

The gate in storm serpent one crackles with energy as the guardians 1 step through the portal to engage the Baneblades. The combat is short and bloody. The Imperials go to resolution at +1 but win the combat by 5! The broken remnants of the guardians retreat towards the left side of the hill near the objective.

Thunderbolt 1 then arrive to continue the attack on the shining spears, killing one more and breaking the formation. They decide to stay put.

Nightwings 2 move in and attack the rough riders, killing one and breaking the formation.

The Hydras are then order to advance but again the links between the legate and the guard breakdown and the hydras stay put, removing the BM.

The Revanants final double forward to shoot at the leman russes. 5 are hit but only one is destroyed.

Shadow sword one has waited for this opportunity and is ordered to move forward. Yet again the order goes wrong the the super heavy stays put.

The Phantom takes a run down the beach and targets the russes, brewing up another imperial tank.

The Reaver then marches down the river bank into the eldar half.

The rangers remain on over watch.

The infantry company open fire on the rangers, killing 3 the survivor retreating behind the central hill.

Despite the amount of flak both sides have all planes leave the battlefield intact.

End of Turn:

The guardians, Rangers and storm serpent rally. The shining spears and Falcon 3 fail.

The Leman Russes and Baneblades rally, the vultures and rough riders fail.


Wow, that was a marathon to play and post! More after lunch.

Imperial left flank. That's the baneblades hiding in those woods. Sorry, don't have a decent shot of the Imperial right.

Sorry, meant to sneak that last deployment close up in before Mephiston posted the first turn. Doing a batrep in tandem is a tricky business   . I'll stay out of it until Mephiston's write up is finished and then post some more photos.

Despite saying that I'd stay out of it until the end, through the wonders of modern communications (a text message and a PM), we've decided it will be better if I post photos between Mephiston's turn write ups. So here goes:

Here are the Baneblades redeploying from the left flank to counter the strong Eldar forces sweeping down the right

Guardians pour out of the storm serpent to engage the baneblades but, after some poor eldar luck, the super heavies win the day.

Sorry, forgot to attach last image

The Eldar sweep down the Imperial right in an early strike, the swooping hawks taking out the maticores (who were behind those rocks) and the falcons sweeping round the flank of the vultures (who were behind those buildings) to break them.

Imperial forces got some measure of revenge later in the turn when the rough riders (who you can see in the distance) killed off the swooping hawks in close combat, with fire support from the Russ company.

Thuderbolts scream in from the sea, along the city street, to strafe the shining spears.

All the aircraft, both Imperial and Eldar, attacked from the direction of the sea in the first turn. We imagined there must have been two big rival aircraft carriers or whatever somewhere out there, off board.

Falcons skulk behind the weird hill in the middle and pop up to strike at the Baneblades

Last photo for now - Mephiston, the floor is yours  

A terrifying view for pointy ears ...

Awesome stuff, gentlemen: the text and photos are great!

Really looking forward to the rest of this.

_________________
"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

Now living in Boston... any EPIC players want to meet up?

Turn 2

No Teleports.

Strategy Roll: Eldar

Storm serpent one doubles towards the imperial blitz and shots at the broken vultures. One vulture remains to move towards the woods on the imperial left.

The second guardian formation engage out of storm serpent one to attack the hydras. As the dust settles the hydra's are no more. One wraith lord is killed and the guardians consolidate to hold the blitz.

The russes are now in prime position to take down the revenants. The legate orders them to sustain fire, the russes check that the legate doesn't want them to attack the Phantom and the reply gets lost. The russes stay put and shoot at the revenants. One point of damage is taken.

The revenants double to the imperial base line to shot shadow sword one in a crossfire. 2 DC is removed breaking the super heavy. However the commissar decides to stay put.

The Phantom is keen to capitalise on the russes activation failure so it advances to fire. Caught in a crossfire with the revenants 4 tanks are destroyed, breaking the formation that retreats behind the rocks near the beach.

The Imperator now doubles forward to stand on the wraithgate! It unloads all its weapons at the wave serpent aspect host. After all the shooting 4 warriors and 2 wave serpents survive but are broken. They retreat behind the little hill in front of the eldar blitz.

The heavy weapon guardians attempt to go on over watch fearful that the assault reaver is in engage range. However the order goes astray. No that river looks like a slow moving shallow river right? Perfect cover for guardians? So rather than  remove blast markers they elect to move into the river. It turns out to be a deep fast flowing torrent that claims the lives of 3 of the gun crews!

Shadowsword two advances towards the imperial blitz and targets storm serpent one. 2 DC's are taken from the eov and it breaks. It remains in place as no imperial formations are in range.

Nightwings one ground attack the broken russes but fail to hit.

The Baneblade company now advances back towards its blitz and lets fly with all its weapons. Now I can confirm that the netERC Baneblade is a very effect tank as only 2 wraithlords and one wraithguard are left standing, broken by the onslaught.

Nightwings two are order to attach the broken russes but stand down instead.

Thunderbolt two are ordered to attack the broken wave serpent aspects killing an aspect unit.

The lone ranger (hi ho silver!) doubles forward to try and assassinate the commissar in the infantry company but misses.

The infantry company are order to double out of the river but decided that they like it there (good fishing apparently!). Some of their number shoot at the lone ranger and kill him.

Guardians one marshal moving back towards the left eldar objective and remove all the remaining blast markers.

The reaver engages the hapless guardians in the stream wiping out the formation.

Storm serpent two advances by roping up over the wood and targeting the reaver that had been unshielded during the fire fight. 2 DC are stripped from the titan.

The warhound pack doubles back towards the imperial blitz and destroy storm serpent one.

Falcon 2 are ordered to doulbe but fail to get the order and stay put removing blast markers.

Thunderbolts one attack the wave serpent aspects finally doing enough damage to wipe them out.

End of turn:

Once again all aircraft escape without harm.

Eldar rally the shining spears and the guardians near the imperial blitz. Everything else fails.

The imperials only mange to rally the reaver and the infantry.