BatRep 020-05-29-2000
Imperial Guard vs Eldar
Siegebreaker
He had reviewed the decision in his head many times, and though he knew he could never aspire to command, Trooper Baptist agreed with the Captain's choice. It seemed that with the Eldar, diplomacy only led to long waits, misunderstandings, and inevitable conflict. No man could hope to understand their mind, to guess their plans, or even to avoid any one of countless "insults" that would bring them screaming down on you.
No, the Captain had been right-- the "negotiations" were going nowhere. Even as he communicated with their leaders over the comm-link, his lieutenants were preparing to attack. What else could they do? The Eldar were playing some sort of game, and it was necessary to strike first. The only transport they had available was a lone Falcon; if they could take it down, then the Eldar would have nowhere to run. If they waited even a moment longer, more Eldar transports could arrive, and the Guard would lose their advantage. There was no way they could chase down those skimmers.
The only question was: Did the Eldar fully understand the importance of this world? Were they merely passing through, as they claimed? Or were they aware of the hidden technology and the colossal, sleeping forges that lay beneath the surface? To hear them speak, it was apparent there was little the Eldar didn't claim to know; that they would feign ignorance now was unbelievable. The simple fact was, they just couldn't afford to take the chance. For the Imperium.
He had seen better Basilisk crews, but not many. With the patience of the Eldar themselves, the crew had slowly aimed the big gun, not moving it more than a fraction of an inch an hour. The Eldar had not noticed; the Falcon had not moved. Trooper Baptist prayed that their aim was good.
The Captain gave the order, and the Basilisk fired the shot that started a war...
View from the North / View from the South
By popular request, this is the first in a series of Imperial/Eldar campaign battles. Over the course of the next few batreps you will see many battles featuring the combined Imperial forces of Tallarn, Praetorians, Space Marines, and Sisters against three different Craftworlds and two kabal of Dark Eldar. Over 5000 points of Imperials and close to 10,000 points of very angry Eldar. And as you may guess from the intro fluff, something BIG is on the way...
Siegebreaker
Read the scenario HERE then use the
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As you'll see from this batrep, we had a lot of kinks to work out of the Siegebreaker scenario. When we played this mission, we had the defender set up ALL his forces before the attacker-- obviously, this is a huge advantage to the attacker not to mention an unrealistic way of how a proper siege would develop over the course of several days or weeks.
We also decided to roll for the first turn-- and in this case the Guard won and took the first turn. Again, too much of an advantage. To be a proper Siegebreaker, the defender should take the first turn-- after all, it should be the decision of their commander to take the desperate step of sallying forth to break the siege.
So, keep in mind as you read this batrep that the rules for this scenario were still very much in testing. What we ended up here wasn't much of a Siegebreaker-- more like "Shooting Mon-keigh in a Barrel..."
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Ben (ever-vigilant captain of the Guard): The major task for the attacker here is to spread out your forces evenly so that the defender can't make a single push towards your weakest flank. I put the mortars near the center of the table, so that they would be able to lob shells onto either end, and I supported them with one of the Praetorian squads and the armored fist. The Basilisk was a little trickier. It couldn't go in the center, or the Eldar would too quickly be able to duck inside its indirect fire range. I put it down on the south end and supported it with the Penal Squad. It was a little risky, but the Eldar were deployed much heavier towards the north end and I figured they wouldn't risk running towards the Basilisk. The only real threat was the fast-moving Falcon... |
Total Army Cost: 1496 Pts. |
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Brian (ancient, creepy Eldar thing): Having to set up first was obviously a huge disadvantage. Since most of my Eldar were on foot, I placed them as close as I could to one table edge, to minimize the amount of running I was going to have to do. Yes, it meant that the Basilisk was going to be deployed on the other end, pounding me mercilessly every step of the way. Those of you playing the defenders in this scenario should avoid the handicap of deploying first and moving last; the finished scenario rules have been changed to reflect this. |
Total Imperial Army Cost: 1496 Pts. |
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Deployment:
The Imperial Guard surround the Eldar position...
The Eldar face down their waiting doom...
Captain
Callidus
Assassin
Lieutenant
Hellhound
Exterminator