Opponent: Gary
Campaign: Phoenix campaign game 9
Mission: Night Fight
1st turn: Eldar
Points: 1500
Location: Tyro Weapons Testing Area (location 5), Tyro Peninsula, Kutch, Salazar systems
Background: With the Chaos Space Marines busy defending Emerald Ridge, the Eldar launch a surprise attack on the Weapons Testing grounds in the centre of the peninsula. If the Eldar are successful they are almost certain to overstretch the Exigators and make the peninsula unviable for them.
Chaos Space Marines
- Bellicus - Daemon Prince
- Ppbhuln'naks - Greater Daemon
- Squad Krall – 10 Chaos space marines, plasma gun, lascannon, aspiring champion with powerfist, icon of chaos glory, Rhino with Extra Armour
- Atrocitor - Dreadnought, twin linked lascannon, Extra Armour
- Squad Kanker - 7 Plague marines, plasma gun, flamer, aspiring champion with power weapon, personal icon
- Iideommae - 6 Lesser daemons (Daemonettes)
- Arableuerakiar - 8 Lesser daemons (Furies)
- Uuandearzao - 9 Lesser daemons (Plague Bearers)
- Squad Scrementor – 8 Raptors, 2 flamers, aspiring champion with power weapon, Icon of Chaos Glory
- Torius - Predator, twin linked lascannon, heavy bolter sponsons
Eldar
- Icareane - Autarch, Swooping Hawk wings, power weapon, fusion gun
- Lauthelias - Farseer runes of warding runes of witnessing, spirit stones, doom, fortune
- 5 warlocks, enhance, embolden
- Laconfir - 8 Dire Avengers, Exarch with diresword, shuriken pistol, bladestorm
- Nazrain - 10 Guardians, starcannon
- Saduras Clearsight - 5 Rangers
- Amost - 1 Falcon, scatterlaser, holofield
- Isenrain - 9 Warpspiders, Exarch with deathspinners, powerblades, withdraw
- Sheira - 7 Howling Banshees, Exarch with executioner + wavesepent with starcannon
- Lothost - 5 Firedragons, exarch with fire pike
Terrain and deployment
Gary hadn't changed the terrain since our last game. I won the dice off for the choice of table quarters and put the Eldar in the most open quarter so that I could use the woods for cover.
The game
The Eldar moved forward into the night. Icareane's plan was to hold the centre with the Dire Avengers and Guardians while the Falcon and Wave Serpent carrying the Banshees pushed up the Chaos right, and the Warp Spiders and Farseer unit advanced up the Chaos left.
The Exigators had a stronger left flank, with the Predator leading the charge between the woods and the Rhino following behind. The raptors used the tanks for cover as they advanced. The Plague Marines and Daemon Prince moved up behind the wood on the right and Dreadnought Atrocitor was on the extreme right.
Shots lit up the night as the Eldar skimmers targeted the Dreadnought but the Chaos construct remained unharmed. In return Atrocitor unleashed a twin-linked lascannon shot at the Wave Serpent and blew it out of the sky. The Fire Dragons leapt from the Falcon and slagged the Dreadnought in return.
On the Chaos left the Warp Spiders made a daring jump into the woods to expose the vulnerable side armour of the Predator. Torius ground to a halt as it was engulfed in a blizzard of monafilament wire. The Spiders jumped back out behind the wood.
Squad Scrementor fired up their jump packs and landed next to the aspect warriors. They bathed them in flame and then charged in. They were joined by the Furies which had been summoned into the wood. The Warp Spiders broke and fled from the battlefield.
Back on the right, the Plague Marines of squad Kanker moved up to hammer the Fire Dragons. The Aspect Warriors withstood the fire, though, and only one fell. The survivors and the Falcon combined their fire to take down three of their attackers.
Squad Krall had tried to join the combat with the Warp Spiders by driving their Rhino through the wood but it had smashed into a tree and thrown a track. Then the Greater Daemon manifested in the midst of the squad. That meant that the Farseer unit and Autarch could beat up on the Raptors. The icon bearer was the lone survivor and he allowed the unit of Daemonettes to be summoned nearby. The Furies returned from chasing the Warp Spiders and the Greater Daemon crashed through the trees, so a titanic conflict erupted on the left flank.The last Raptor fell to the Warlocks as did a handful of Furies and Daemonettes. The Eldar suffered far worse casualties as the Autarch was slaughtered by the Greater Daemon and the Farseer unit was ripped apart under a crush of Daemons. The Exigators had taken the left flank.
The Chaos Space Marines were rolling up the right flank too. Ignoring the nigh invulnerable Falcon, Squad Kanker moved into the woods toward the Eldar centre. They summoned the Plague Bearers who immediately attacked the Fire Dragons. The Aspect Warriors died under the onslaught. But now the daemons were exposed in front of both the Guardians and Dire Avengers.The power of Father Nurgle waxed strong, though, as the Plague Bearers survived a hail of shuriken catapult shots and only took four casualties. The unit charged into the Guardians and broke their morale. The Eldar were trampled underfoot as the daemons pushed on to find more victims.
The Exigators had penetrated through the centre, too. Daemon Prince Bellicus was assaulted by the Howling Banshees. He held off the Aspect Warriors long enough for Squad Krall to steam in and drive off the Eldar.
The Dire Avengers pulled back as the Exigators advanced on all fronts. Supporting fire came from the Rangers who had deployed deep in a hidden corner of the battlefield. They had managed to get off an impressive couple of shots at extreme range in the pitch black and drop two Plague Bearers.
The Exigators pursued the Dire Avengers knowing they could not get anywhere near the Rangers. Meanwhile the Falcon circled, whittling away the Chaos units. If the Dire Avengers could hurt the Furies they might pull off an unlikely victory.
It was not to be.The Avengers could only target Squad Krall and caused few casualties and were then riddled with fire in return.
Bellicus gave a roar as his Exigators took the field.
Result: Win
Commendations
- Chaos Space Marines - Great Daemon
- Eldar - Rangers
Dreadnought Atrocitor taking down the Wave Serpent with a single shot. Sweet.
Learning points
- Gary and I disagreed about the merits of the Warp Spiders daring attack on the Predator. Gary thought it was worth it as he had fortuned them and doomed the Raptors. With the Autarch and Farseer unit following up behind he felt he was in a strong position. I was happy to give up the Predator so that I knew I would get my hands on the Warp Spiders. I thought the Raptors and Furies should be able to handle the Aspect Warriors and then the resulting combat with the Eldar HQ units should last long enough for the Greater Daemon and other Daemons to arrive.
- That sets the campaign up very nicely for a crucial last battle. If the Eldar win, they will win a marginal victory in the whole campaign and drive the Exigators off the peninsula. If the Exigators win, they will force a draw and we will need to play one further game to decide the fate of Tyro Peninsula and the vanguard of the Chaos attack into the Skolarii Sector.
Chaos Space Marines
- +150 Bellicus - Daemon Prince
- +1410 Ppbhuln'naks - Greater Daemon
- +350 Squad Krall – 10 Chaos space marines, plasma gun, lascannon, aspiring champion with powerfist, icon of chaos glory, Rhino with Extra Armour
- -200 Atrocitor - Dreadnought, twin linked lascannon, Extra Armour
- +560 Squad Kanker - 7 Plague marines, plasma gun, flamer, aspiring champion with power weapon, personal icon
- +750 Iideommae - 6 Lesser daemons (Daemonettes)
- -50 Arableuerakiar - 8 Lesser daemons (Furies)
- +800 Uuandearzao - 9 Lesser daemons (Plague Bearers)
- +270 Squad Scrementor – 8 Raptors, 2 flamers, aspiring champion with power weapon, Icon of Chaos Glory
- -350 Torius - Predator, twin linked lascannon, heavy bolter sponsons
Eldar
- -10 Icareane - Autarch, Swooping Hawk wings, power weapon, fusion gun
- +1080 Lauthelias - Farseer runes of warding runes of witnessing, spirit stones, doom, fortune
- 5 warlocks, enhance, embolden
- -800 Laconfir - 8 Dire Avengers, Exarch with diresword, shuriken pistol, bladestorm
- -300 Nazrain - 10 Guardians, starcannon
- +800 Saduras Clearsight - 5 Rangers
- +1400 Amost - 1 Falcon, scatterlaser, holofield
- +830 Isenrain - 9 Warpspiders, Exarch with deathspinners, powerblades, withdraw
- +500 Sheira - 7 Howling Banshees, Exarch with executioner + wavesepent with starcannon
- -750 Lothost - 5 Firedragons, exarch with fire pike
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