A couple of weeks ago, my good buddy and sometime Epic afficionado, known on these forums as Selim Wormrider, drove up to my place for a day of Epic Armageddon bloodshed and mayhem. I took the time to carefully photograph and document our game, and this battle report has been posted (in a slightly modified format) on the forums at somethingawful.com, where I'm a regular. Selim also requested that I post it here for your entertainment and amusement. So, here we go!
3500 Point Newbie Mistake-Filled Biel-Tan vs. Steel Legion Battle RoyaleHe brought along his Steel Legion (Imperial Guard) forces, which – although he's owned them for years – he's never had a chance to play. Mostly he plays his orc army, and he sometimes also brings out his eldar.
I fielded my Biel-Tan army; Selim was nice enough to loan me a few units I was missing, namely the nightwings, the wraithgate, and a couple of Fire Storms. Selim also provided all the scenery.
While Selim has played a handful of games over the last few years, he's mostly played with a very experienced player who knows all the rules by heart: enough so that there were a number of rules questions and mistakes that we made in this game as we were both trying to get a handle on the rules. The intent was a sort of “practice game” for both of us, rather than a true test of military acumen.
We had agreed beforehand to create armies of 3500 points each, large enough to fit titans and aircraft, for the full Epic experience. We both used the Armyforge tool found at
http://traitor-legion/appspot.com (I can highly recommend this excellent tool) to put together our lists:
THE FORCES:Selim Wormrider:
Steel Legion (EA Rulebook Oct09)
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REGIMENTAL HQ [950]
Supreme Commander, 12 Infantry, 7 Chimera, Tank Squadron (3 Leman Russ), Griffon Battery (3 Griffons), Fire Support Platoon (4 Fire Support), 2 Chimera
INFANTRY COMPANY [500]
Commander, 12 Infantry, Hellhound Squadron (3 Hellhounds), 2 Snipers, 2 Ogryns
ARTILLERY BATTERY [250]
3 Bombards
ARTILLERY BATTERY [250]
3 Basilisks
FLAK BATTERY [150]
3 Hydra
STORM TROOPER PLATOON [200]
8 Storm Troopers
SUPER-HEAVY TANK PLATOON [200]
Baneblade
SUPER-HEAVY TANK PLATOON [200]
Shadowsword
THUNDERBOLT FIGHTERS [150]
2 Thunderbolts
REAVER CLASS TITAN [650]
Leperflesh:
Biel-Tan Craftworld (EA Swordwind)
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WINDRIDER TROUPE [200]
4 Jetbike, 2 Vyper
FALCON TROUPE [250]
3 Falcon, 2 Fire Storm
PHANTOM TITAN [750]
WRAITHGATE [50]
AVATAR [0]
ASPECT WARRIOR WARHOST [400]
2 Dire Avenger, 2 Howling Banshee, 2 Fire Dragon, 2 Striking Scorpion, Exarch, Autarch
GUARDIAN WARHOST [525]
Farseer, 4 Guardians, 3 Wraithguard, Wraithlords (3), 3 Heavy Weapon Platforms, 3 Support Weapon Platforms
ENGINES OF VAUL TROUPE [750]
2 Cobra, Scorpion
NIGHTWINGS [300]
3 Nightwing Interceptors
NIGHT SPINNER TROUPE [175]
3 Night Spinners
RANGER TROUPE [100]
4 Ranger
SETUP
First we took turns placing groups of terrain and scenery, and then Leperflesh picked the right-side of the board (in this view), designated East. Selim will play from the left, designated West.

We then took turns placing objectives: one each on our own sides of the board near the edge, then two on the opponent's side but minimum 30cm away from the edge. Finally, Leperflesh replaced one objective not on his opponent's edge with the Wraithgate.
Closeup views of the terrain and objectives:

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Leperflesh's Rangers are the only scout formation; he gets to garrison them, setting them up within 15cm of an objective on his own side of the table.
The players take turns placing formations on the board. Here's the result after all formations are deployed:

Selim's aero is off-board ruleswise, but for fluff, it is making use of the airbase in the southwest corner.
Leperflesh places most of his forces on the board: the aspect warrior warhost and the avatar are held in the Webway, while the eldar aero are off-board awaiting commands.
Note: because I used traitor-legion.appspot.com to buy my units, I didn't notice the Avatar rules on the army list in Swordwind, and consequently I am using my Avatar incorrectly. The first of several rules errors we commit in this game, due to inexperience.
Perhaps more embarrassingly, Selim completely forgot his Storm Trooper Platoon. That puts him at a 200 point disadvantage, and moreover, robbed him of his only garrisonable formation.TURN 1Selim wins the strategic roll and gets to start the turn.

Selim activates his Regimental HQ with Double action. Failed activation test! Hold action. Moves 1.
Note: Selim and I both initially forgot his commander would have given a chance to re-roll init. Also, we forgot throughout the game that failed action tests incur a blast marker. Oops!Leperflesh activates Nightwings with Combat Air Patrol (CAP) action. Failed activation test! Stand Down.

Selim activates Reaver Titan with Advance action. Moves towards gap between hill and woods. No enemy units in range.

Selim activates Super-heavy Tank Platoon (Baneblade) with Retained Initiative for Double action. No enemy units in range.
Leperflesh activates Phantom Titan with Double move. It advances west along the edge of the battlefield and shoots at the Super-heavy Tank Platoon (Shadowsword):
Missile launcher misses.
Pulsar hits with both shots! The Shadowsword fails both its armor save dice. With two hits, it takes three blast markers (one for being shot at, two for two hits), equalling its starting DC, and is broken!
We forget that the shadowsword has a free double-move after being broken, but we also forget to mark it's broken. Also I have recently learned that the titan pulsar denies the Shadowsword armor saves – the types of saves available for TK, macro- and normal weapons are a bit confusing!
Selim activates Artillery Battery (Basilisks) with Sustained Fire action. It fires on the Titan (with a +1 to hit for Sustain) and scores two hits! The Phantom's holo shield causes one hit to go astray, and its armor saves the other, but it takes one blast marker for being fired upon.

Leperflesh activates Ranger Troupe with Double action. They advance to take up sniping positions in the ruined buildings, but have no enemies within range to shoot at.
Selim activates Infantry Company with Advance action and moves up, but has no targets in range.

Selim activates Flak Battery (Hydras), Retaining the Initiative with Advance orders. They make a small move but cannot fire indirectly when not taking a Sustain action.

Leperflesh activates Engines of Vaul with Double-move. They advance up to the Webway gate and take shots at the distant Super-heavy Tank Platoon (Baneblade), scoring a hit and placing two blast markers.

Selim activates his Thunderbolt Fighters with Ground Attack orders. They streak across the table in a wide arc, taking up position to shoot at the Engines of Vaul, but in the process fly close enough to the Phantom titan for it to take potshots with its twin Missile Launchers: it shoots down one Thunderbolt. The remaining Thunderbolt scores a hit on the Engines of Vaul, but it is not a crit.


Leperflesh activates Windrider Troupe with Double action. They advance to a spot between two buildings and shoot at the Super-heavy Tank Platoon (Baneblade), firing on it before descending to the ground for cover. The vipers fire two shots, but both miss; the blast marker added to the Baneblade for coming under fire breaks the unit!
We were still doing this wrong during Turn 1, saying it was suppressed rather than broken. It should have been broken and had an immediate retreat double-move available. Fortunately, this mistake turns out not to have mattered much.
Selim activates Artillery Battery (Bombards) (probably with a Sustain action, I failed to note it but) they fail init! They are forced to take a Hold action, so they advance past their small hill to close the range a bit.

Leperflesh activates the Falcon Troupe with Advance orders, and they move up past the ruins to take position in front of the rangers: Before descending, they shoot at the Regimental HQ, destroying two of the leading Lemun Russ tanks (a third unit makes its armor save) and placing three blast markers on the formation.

With all of Selim's units having activated, Leperflesh retains the initiative for the rest of the turn without penalty.

Leperflesh activates his Guardian Warhost with a Double action. They move cautiously forward, claiming the nearby objective and spreading out to surround it and keep important units in cover.


Leperflesh activates his Night Spinner Troupe with a Double action. They advance to the low hill and nearby objective, remaining in the air to fire directly on the Regimental HQ before descending.

The barrage misses all of the affected units, but the HQ takes another blast marker for being fired-upon.
We used the wrong-sized barrage template throughout the game. We also did the first couple of barrages wrong: the rules are pretty confusing, but you're supposed to roll one attack on each unit under the template, at a to-hit determined by how many firing units are contributing. Instead I rolled once for each firing unit, total, so I cheated myself of one die here. At least we were using the revised table from GW's published errata!
Finally, Leperflesh activates his Aspect Warrior Warhost with a Double move. The formation advances out of the Wraithgate, sprinting into the nearby woods to take cover from the nearby Reaver titan.
The woods are the entire felt shape; the trees on top are just for visual appeal, and can be moved at any time to allow units to take position.Turn 1 END PHASEThe remaining Thunderbolt maneuvers to exit the board on Selim's side (the western edge), without coming close enough for the Firestorms to shoot at them.
All units with blast markers attempt to rally:
Engines of Vaul rally and remove 1 BM.
Shadowsword rallies and removes 2 BM.
we did this wrong. Should have been broken, which costs -2 penalty to the rally roll. I didn't note his die result but he may have rolled high enough to rally anyway.Phantom titan rallies and removes 1 BM.
Regimental HQ rallies and removes 2 BM, +1 BM for the Supreme Commander.
The Baneblade fails to rally and is broken. It takes a free Withrdraw double-move.
Should have been broken already, but at least we did this right, giving the broken unit its Withdraw move. That let Selim place it out of danger, as he probably would have done earlier in the turn, so no harm no foul.