Battle 2 of those fought as part of the Kalidothia Campaign using The Bisslers Epic War! campaign rules. To find out more about the Campaign, please see this thread;

http://www.tacticalwargames.net/taccmd/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=30910

Imperial recon survey of the town Dumbledarton, early morning.



++ 2 Crossing points across the river identified, Promethium processing plant intact, communications relay disabled, but no damage visable. Expecting opposing forces to fortify the south west quadrant ++

Looks like Ghordan is seeing to this engagement personally - you have to admire his boldness!

Squats;
Doomanvil Squadron 1600
Goliath Superheavy Battery 500
Air Attack Corps 700
Iron Eagle Wing 550
Guild Biker Co 700
Mole Detachment 300
Termite Detachment 200
Thunderer Detachment 300
Rhino Squadron 50
Grand Warlord Ghordan 100
900 points of defences

Imperial Guard;
Artillery Company 600
Heavy Inf Company 600
Predator Company 600
ShadowSword Company 650
Stormhammer Company 650
Imperial Bike Company 350
Vindicator Company 450
Thunderbolt Sqd 250
Hellhound Sqd 150
Adeptus Psyker 100
Reaver Titan (Quake Cannon + 2 x TL destructors)



Report to follow...

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Blog: http://epicmot.blogspot.co.uk

Pre-deployment;



Imperial forces deploy along the 'top' edge of the photo.
Placing the bulk of their bikes on the far right edge in a bid to snatch the objectives deep in the enemy territory.
Supporting the dash across the wasteland is a detchment of predators, 2 Shadowswords, a Bassilisk sqd and a stormhammer to protect their rear from tunnelers.

In the middle, pushing in to the town are 2 heavy infantry units, a vindicator squad and the reaver titan.

Armoured forces lead by the enigmatic Stormhammer company commander amass on the crossing opposite the Squat's fortifications hoping to survive the exposed route to smash headlong in to the defenders position, with little regard for their lives...

On the left side the remainder of the artillery company sits hidden by the tall rock formations and a shadowsword, stormhammer and heavy infantry lay in wait for any fool dwarf who wanders in to range.


The Squats dig in on the bottom left corner and present an almost impenetrable wall of fortifications, consisting of razorwire, minefields, bunkers and artillery positions.

Ghordan himself takes position in a bunker overlooking the battle field, with a feeling of safety as his Goliath Mega cannons let out a subsonic moan as they pivot into position and begin dialing in the range for the imperial lines.

Overhead the majestic Overlord airships drift forward and bring their cannons forwards.

In the eerie quite streets of Dumblebarton rhinos loaded with Squat Thunderers power forward to gain a vantage point in one of the abandoned buildings, and a company of Gyrocopters hand just out of sight, ready to support their brothers.

The ultimate terror for Markas' Imperial force sits defending the right hand river crossing, a DoomAnvil company fully stocked with missiles and void shields fully charged.

Behind them bikes and trikes rev their engines - relishing the chance to engage their imperial counterparts.



Turn 1 -

Imperial heavy troops spot the squat infantry moving in the buildings opposite them and fire from the tree line, eviscerating 3 units.



Imperial bikes dash across the river crossing and engage the squat rhinos in a bit to sieze objective 8.
overhead a detachment of gyrocopters dart between the tall buildings and begin firing at a squad of heavy infantry making a break for higher ground, one unit is gunned down.



A Predator squad tears across the rocky terrain to aid the infantry in the open and swats one of the 'copters down.

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Blog: http://epicmot.blogspot.co.uk

One of the Overlord airships breaks its defensive position and begins floating meaninglessly towards the imperial lines, but as it drifts the 3rd squad of Imperial Heavy infantry loose their lascannons at it, from the concealment of the tree line. cutting it to ribbons before it can unleash it's salvo.



Bikers from both sides clash in the forest close to the processing plant, with the imperials surrounded almost 2:1!



Vindicators and Hellhounds make a suicide charge towards the Squat lines and by sheer faith in the Emperor suffer minimal losses from fire from both the Overlord airships and Goliath mega cannon, only losing 1 of each unit.



The Colossus holding the 2nd crossing pivots into action and fires its Doomsday cannon and hellfire missiles at the squad of Predators and heavy infantry that have been harassing the squats in the town.
after the smoke clears only 1 unit of infantry and 2 predators survive.

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Blog: http://epicmot.blogspot.co.uk

A Goliath Mega cannon launches a massive shell high into the air, and the heavy infantry unit in the treeline make peace with their maker... One unit survives.



a squad of predators moves to cover the Vindicator/Hellhound's rush and one of them spots movement in a bunker near the comms relay. The tank lights up the inside of the bunker through a viewfinder hole barely the size of a man, and the movement inside is halted.
Little did the gunner know that he had just put the Squat Warlord Ghordan out of commission.




Another 2 Gyrocopters fall to the weight of fire from the Imperial Super heavies, but they are beginning to run out of targets!

On the Imperial left flank imperial tanks act as bait for the praetorians on overwatch in the area, and start stripping shields, however the vast warmachines hold fire...



With one of the praetorians exposed with no void shields the Shadowsword with it's massive volcano cannon is ordered to deal the finishing blow. As it lines up its shot, a blinding light and searing heat is the last thing the crew feels. The Hellfury cannon of the Cyclops turns the 1000 year old veteran tank into slag.

Screaming out of the atmosphere, a wing of Thunderbolt fighters strafe the DoomAnvil company and successfully deactivate all remaining void shields, signalling the reaver titan to step in and send them back to Golgotha.

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Blog: http://epicmot.blogspot.co.uk

The titan's shots fail to connect and it is left standing in the open, the expression of disbelief is almost visible on the anthropomorphic cockpit of the towering giant.

With all units now moved and fired, the deadly close combat begins...

The Squat bikers make mince meat from their imperial counterparts in the woods.
To save the company from disgrace the unit of imperial bikes in the town wipe out the squat rhinos in order to claim the objective.






Turn 1 is concluded and both sides take stock...

Squats hold 3 objectives and have broken 2 companies with 11 VPs, giving them a total of 26.
The Imperial guard have taken 2 objectives and 13 points of kills

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Blog: http://epicmot.blogspot.co.uk

Turn 2

The void shields of the massive squat praetorians burst back to life and are nearly fully restored, much to the dismay of the imperial forces...

with the initiative the imperial commander orders the Reaver titan to loose everything it has against the colossus in the center of the river crossing.
Once again it fails to get past the praetorian's shields, the titan then makes a b-line for the cover of the city to avoid the inevitable response from the squat doom anvil company.


With the titan out of sight the colossus lines up the imperial armour closing in on it.
The doomsday cannon shreds 3 predator tanks and an experienced squat gunner swats down one of the Thunderbolt fighters using the turret mounted battle cannon.



The remaining thunderbolts loop back around and again strip the mighty crawlers of their shields, before powering towards the squat back lines and the Goliath Mega Cannon battery.

One of he Cyclops turns its attention to the imperial armour on the opposite crossing, which is getting close to the squat fortifications. with it's salvo of missiles and cannon fire it wipes out the remainder of predators and hellhounds on that flank.



The detachment of vindicators who had earlier risked their lives crossing the river found themselves with little to target in amongst the first line of squat defences (had it all been a ruse?). instead they trained their mighty thunderer siege cannons at the last gyrocopter buzzing around the city, and sent it flaming into the ground.

On the Imperial left flank another detachment of vindicators went to seize objective 5, and afford a better fighting position in the city ruins. they were able punch though they praetorians shields, but their shots failed to do any damage. The response was brutal.
The remaining Cyclops vaporised the siege tanks, leaving the objective clear again for the taking.



Squat bikes and trikes then screamed across the river and joined their brothers in taking the ruins, so recently occupied by the vindicators.
In an act of sheer defiance at the squats, a commissar led the remaining imperial bikes into the rubble in a bid to take as many with them as they could.



The massive overlord airships floating high above the squat fortifications opted to maintain their position and were able to destroy the remaining vindicators and thunderbolt fighters pushing in on their lines.

Close combat in the ruins was swift and deadly, with no imperial bikes surviving their suicide mission.



The losses were tallied and the objectives were counted.

Final score -
Squats, 53
Imperial Guard, 18

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Blog: http://epicmot.blogspot.co.uk

Excellent battle report, cheers Craig!

Post battle analysis:

I set up defences down one side of the board but they aren't great for the Squats as my infantry were mostly based in Termites and a Mole (not deployed during the battle). The skimmer Iron Eagles and the Praetorians have no use for them while my bikes would have been restricted by the razor wire I placed. I therefore placed the Iron Eagles in a central position to maximise their targets while I concentrated the bikes and Praetorians at the river crossing.

The Iron Eagles inevitably took a battering for taking up that central position but other than that I was very lucky as my forces remained fairly intact. I was incredibly fortunate not to lose a Praetorian due to good shield rolls at the end of turn one and a lot of excellent dice rolls when making armour saves. The ones that I did fail were not to the bridge so they stood up to the punishment spectacularly. Getting the Praetorians into a good position was key to this battle and they proved to be the stars of my triumph. This for me is the biggest explanation as to why there was such a turnaround in my fortunes from battle 1 to 2 when much the same forces clashed.

The only downside was that Grand Warlord was severely wounded in the battle, saved only by his bodyguards throwing themselves in front of the laser cannon fire. Luckily he was left for dead and once the battle was won he was taken away from the frontline to heal and coordinate the war from afar...

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Clickable links for more Epic goodness:

Life of Die Channel including Epic Podcasts and Battle Reports

Epic 40K Players Page on Facebook
Net Epic Evolution Rules
Net Epic War! Campaign Rules

Nice report fellas!
Craig should claim a moral victory for taking that warlord down!

Did you guys use over watch in this one? (Apologies if you've said and I missed it).

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http://ragged-they-kill.blogspot.com.au/

Ah! I forgot to mention that, yes we did! It worked pretty well and sorted the problem that I'd had previously with the Squats where everything was deployed but had few targets because the other side hadn't yet deployed. This time I could put units on FF orders and Overwatch fire at enemy units deploying then moving into my LOS. I hope this makes some kind of sense!

We've got another one coming up shortly so more Lverwatch playtesting is imminent!

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Clickable links for more Epic goodness:

Life of Die Channel including Epic Podcasts and Battle Reports

Epic 40K Players Page on Facebook
Net Epic Evolution Rules
Net Epic War! Campaign Rules

One thing that's just occurred to me about Overwatch: Units with the Command ability will become even more desirable as they can charge and first fire or charge and be placed on Overwatch. That's not a complaint, merely an observation.

_________________
Clickable links for more Epic goodness:

Life of Die Channel including Epic Podcasts and Battle Reports

Epic 40K Players Page on Facebook
Net Epic Evolution Rules
Net Epic War! Campaign Rules

There is that optional rule that command units can "advance move/first fire shoot" or "charge move/advance shoot" which might be a good way of toning it back down if it turns out to be too powerful.

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http://ragged-they-kill.blogspot.com.au/