I've recently got back into E:A after a long absence, following the happy discovery of a small core of active players here in Sydney. Today I played my first game against DKoK, taking my usual Saim-Hann Eldar. I thought I'd try to take notes for a battle report (my first) and was glad I did, as the game turned into a real doozy. I've also made some graphics to illustrate the game, more as an exercise than anything else: it took a bit longer than I'd anticipated, so I'm not sure if I'll bother doing this again.


Eldar:


DKoK:


(I forget where the Commissars were: one in each Infantry Company



Krieg garrison platforms: Earthshakers on Blitz, Hydras on central objective, Earthshakers on flank objective. No Eldar garrison. Black areas represent impassable dense jungle, dark green patches are normal jungle. Hills are shown with dashed contour lines. In hindsight I think we probably had too much terrain on this table.


Turn 1

Eldar win initiative.
1 (Eldar): Night Spinners sustain, firing on Hydras. Two hits kill one Trojan for 3 BMs, breaking unit coherency.
2 (Eldar Retain, using re-roll): Phoenixes attack forward Earthshaker battery (avoiding flak on the way in), kill 2x Earthshaker platforms + 2x Trojans and break the unit. The shadow weaver template clips a Shadowsword and does 1DC of damage.
3 (Krieg): The unbroken artillery battery sustains fire and shoots the BTS Wild Riders, killing one Vyper.
4 (Eldar): Swords of Vaul double, shooting and killing the damaged Shadowsword.
5 (Krieg): Infantry Company advances, firing Gorgon mortars on Falcons: 3 hits, 2 saves, 1 Falcon dies.
6 (Krieg Retain): Macharius company sustains on Falcons (-1 to hit as obscured by Gorgons), Killing all bar one Firestorm which breaks and flees backwards.
7 (Eldar): Swords of Vaul double and shoot Regimental HQ for 1DC off a Gorgon.
8 (Krieg): Infantry Company advance and mortar second Swords formation, killing one Firestorm.
9 (Eldar): Scorpion doubles to fire at middle InfCo Gorgons, for no damage.
10 (Krieg): Surviving Shadowsword advances and one-shots the activated Scorpion (3DC).
11 (Eldar): Scorpion doubles, shoots Shadowsword for 1DC.
12 (Krieg): Regimental HQ advances, mortars Swords formation killing one Firestorm. Surviving Falcons break and retreat.
13 (Eldar): Scorpion advances and does 2DC of damage to Reg. HQ Gorgon.
14 (Krieg): Hydras attempt to advance, fail, and are forced to move to regain coherency.
Krieg are out of activations.
14-17 (Eldar) Shining Spears and both Wild Riders formations march to prepare for turn 2 engagements.
END PHASE:
Phoenixes leave board with no BMs (single Hydra platform in range is suppressed).
Rallying: single Falcon rallies for Eldar, 3xFalcon SoV stays broken.
Krieg: Infantry Companies and Shadowsword fail to rally (enemy <25cm), broken artillery battery rallies.
End of Turn 1:





TURN 2


Eldar win the initiative, but forget to deploy the Avatar.

1 (Eldar): Shining Spears engage Reg HQ, surrounding the Gorgon carrying the commander so its units may not disembark. BTS Wild Riders provide supporting fire. Both Gorgons are killed along with all 10 trapped infantry, 4 hits on the Shining Spears cause 4 casualties (ouch), and Eldar win the combat by +11 on the resolution. All Krieg infantry are hacked down, winning the BTS for Eldar. Spears are broken and retreat to Eldar lines.


Might have been a good idea to disembark those infantry...

Not picture: the 10 Krieg infantry, including the Supreme Commander, trapped inside the lefthand Gorgon

2 (Eldar Retain): BTS Wild Riders engage Hydra battery with supporting fire from other Wild Riders, and position to receive supporting fire from surviving Shadowsword (which has 2x BMs). Flak battery is wiped out, Shadowsword receives BM for supporting losing assault and breaks. Wild Riders BTS consolidate into supporting range of intermingled Infantry Company, Machariuses, broken Shadowsword, and artillery battery.



3 (Eldar triple retain, using reroll): Second Wild Riders engage Infantry Company and fully surround both Gorgons in CC, calling intermingled on Machariuses, (broken) Shadowsword, and artillery battery. 6 CC hits on Gorgon cause 1DC (boo), for the loss of 2x jetbikes + Wild Riders leader (ouch). Eldar supporting fire destroys a Gorgon and 9 of the infantry inside, winning the engagement by a lot (8?) and destroying the second Gorgon in hackdown, along with all-bar-one of the troops inside (Commissar). Shadowsword dies automatically for losing an assault while broken, Earthshaker platforms embark and withdraw, Machariuses withdraw, lone surviving Commissar withdraws.

It’s pretty clear that the game is all but over at this point, but we continue to play.

4 (Krieg): Unbroken Earthshaker platform fails to activate and breaks, remaining in place.
5 (Eldar): Sole-surviving Firestorm advances, firing on undamaged Infantry Company for a BM.
6 (Krieg): Infantry Company fails to activate, and moves forward while disembarking troops into a patch of forest.
Krieg are out of activations.
7 (Eldar): Night Spinners double forward and fire directly on broken artillery battery, killing 3.
8 (Eldar): Scorpion doubles, shoots broken Machariuses for 1DC (coming under fire, both MW hits are saved).
9 (Eldar): Scorpion advances, shoots broken Earthshakers: 3 die (formation destroyed).
10 (Eldar, mislabelled 9 in diagram): Phoenixes attack broken Machariuses for 1 DC (coming under fire, all hits saved).

End phase: Phoenixes disengage with no BMs (no surviving AA).
Machariuses and Infantry Co rally for Krieg, while sole surviving Earthshaker remains broken.
Eldar all rally.
Situation at end of Turn 2:


TURN 3:
Eldar remember to deploy the Avatar! Not in a very useful location, but he’s there.
Eldar win initiative. At this point Eldar have both Wild Riders formations in good shape, half-strength Shining Spears, both Swords formations (with 1 and 3 surviving vehicles), 2x Scorpions, Night Spinners, and Phoenixes intact. Krieg have an intact Infantry Company, largely intact Machariuses, a single Earthshaker platform (still broken), and a single Commissar remaining from the second Infantry Company.

1 (Eldar): Phoenixes attack Infantry Company in cover killing 4 infantry and 1DC+Crit on an empty Gorgon (immobilising it) for 6 BMs.
2 (Eldar retain): Scorpion advances and shoots the Machariuses, landing one hit to destroy a damaged vehicle and breaking the remaining two.
3 (Krieg): Infantry Company engages Scorpion that just advanced from out of the woods, destroying it to no losses and consolidating back into cover.

4 (Krieg Retain): Lone Commissar thematically engages the non-BTS Wild Riders, calling intermingled on the Avatar. Commissar dies for no kills.

No activations remain for Krieg at this point (Earthshaker platform and Machariuses are both broken).
5 (Eldar): Lone Firestorm advances to an objective and fires on the broken Earthshaker platform, wiping out the formation.
6 (Eldar): Night Spinners double onto the central hill and fire on the Krieg infantry, killing 3.
7 (Eldar): Avatar launches combined assault on Infantry Company with non-BTS Wild Riders, killing 4 for 1 loss. Eldar win resolution by 3, and consolidate back to the enemy Blitz. Infantry Company break and retreat (losing the immobilised Gorgon).

Remaining Eldar activations secure all objectives except the one Krieg is sitting on, which is contested.
End of turn 3: Eldar win 5-0 (Blitz, BTS, T&H, TSNP, DTF).


Closing thoughts
This was my second game since a long break from Epic and wargaming, and I'm pretty happy with how I (Saim-Hann) played. I think this was the first time I got a proper Eldar triple-retain rolling assault going, and boy was it nasty: before he had a chance to activate in Turn 2, Kyle had lost four full units and had two more broken. From that point it was just cleaning up for me, and I ended the game two Scorpions down in return for almost tabling the poor Kriegers. Kyle's a fairly new player, and I think this game illustrated some important points: watch out for intermingling, use Overwatch to your advantage (the Krieg didn't do this, preferring to charge forward into destruction), and think carefully about whether infantry should be inside or outside of transports. By blocking the exits of the DKoK Gorgons with my big jetbike hammer units I was able to turn a few points of damage into 10+ kills and enormous combat resolution bonuses. Disembarked infantry sitting in cover would have been far more difficult to shift. The Kriegers' activation disadvantage was also a real penalty, allowing me to march up all three of my key assault units at the end of Turn 1 without interruption.

A nasty shock here for the Guard: I tried to explain how Saim-Hann worked before we started, but it's hard to understand how fast the army is until you've actually played against it. With a lot of lessons learned, I'm sure our next match will be much more closely fought.

Awesome battle report. Really like the diagrams! Yeah dont underestimate the Saim hann. They are crazy potent.

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Poor krieg. I was left wondering where all the commissars were, quite a lot of losses of expensive WEs to hack downs which is unusual (especially if you're sneaky and put them in gorgons). 1 per inf co, 1 per shadowsword would be my priority.

But yeah sometimes all it takes to lose a game is one bad assault (e.g. trapped in gorgons) or intermingle, let alone three. And then not to make any infantry cover saves when the Gorgon dies, sad times.

On the plus side for you, it's a great feeling when the triple retain comes off, considering how often you just don't get to position that cleanly or roll double 1 for activation.

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Krieg had one Commissar in each infantry company, one in the lead Macharius, and the remaining two on basilisk platforms. After the game I strongly suggested that those last two would be much better placed in Shadowswords in future.

If you look closely, most of the infantry kills werent actually hackdowns but came from infantry trapped in dying Gorgons. Across the two major engagements I was able to trap 30/40 infantry in 3/4 Gorgons using bikes in BTB, and those 6+ cover saves to survive the loss of their transports were not forgiving.

I had a really good time with activations. I don't think I had to take a hold all game (i used my reroll every turn, but I've certainly been on the sad side of double 1s before). Part of that was keeping my key units free from BMs (so I could do things like open turn 2 with Shining Spears on 1+), but part of it was definitely luck. These things happen.

Yeah I mainly noticed the shadowsword and gorgon both go down to not being fearless, the infantry are fodder In the UK list they added a rule that prevents adding it to a gorgon, but not so in the NetEA list yet.

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Fearless Gorgons!!! The thought hadn't even occurred, and would be far nastier. Perhaps less effective for Kriegers on the offensive when the infantry abandon their damaged Gorgons to entrench in cover next to an objective, but against a fast and nasty list like S-H it would really help in keeping the troopers alive. I'll have to pass the idea on to my opponent.

Thanks for the read, Jianaran, and for the extra effort on the diagram. You have some interesting ideas there, like using symbols for the orders, while in my case i use arrows, and words for marshal and hold orders, while these last ones of mine look lame.
Overall i like it that is its easy to understand while simpler than the ones i make.

On the battle side, probably all begun when you could take out one activation from Krieg and restrict the AA. From there it was more one sided than what it looks at first, as you reduced more than a few activations before they could go already on turn one.

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The game was a blast to play and definitely appreciate the hard learned lessons!

I wasn't aware that the gorgons themselves could even have the commissars however it does make a lot of sense and will certainly assist in these kinds of situations (Although I should try not to put myself into these situations next time)

Thanks for the game Jianaran, I will be needing a rematch in the future!

[sobs tears of joy]
THANK you for the diagrams. As much as I love everyone's lovely pictures I cannot at all follow 90% of BatReps on a table level tactical level from them. You doing them up in visio or another tool (or just pixel manipulation?)

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Thanks Jimmy, and I feel pretty much the same way about the pretty but unintelligible picture-filled reports I read. I remember that White Dwarf used to do a monthly battle report with diagrams vaguely like these ones: much easier in 40k, as each player turn makes a pretty simple story, but I think the style I've come up with works well enough for Epic. Any comments or suggestions you'd make on keeping the diagrams intelligible? I used a rough translation of NATO's icons for the units but I'm not sure how I'd handle a larger number of more similar units, or something like titans. The icons for infantry/mechanised infantry/armoured units/cavalry/artillery are clear enough, I made the superheavy Scorpions and Shadowswords armoured artillery which doesn't quite work but seems acceptable, but I probably need to work out something new for War Engines. Feel free to provide suggestions. I think the icons for orders are fairly self-explanatory but still need one for Overwatch, which neither of us used this game.

I put the report together in Illustrator, using separate layers for each turn to make exporting the whole set easier.

This guy maps.

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you probably could get away with a silhouette in the icon similar to how the old 2nd edition cards worked. If we built a large enough SVG library of stuff to sample from, would work well I suspect. For larger things like Titans and Gargants or the comparable I think a circle would suffice. Larger armour like SHT would work with a larger rectangle icon probably as befitting their stature.

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