Massacre on Nolan Six
“The time has come for retribution!” Dracon Dirax spoke to his men. “Our brothers were killed by our Craftworld kin not long ago on Minas Three. The time has come to return the favour!”
Cheers rose from the troops as they readied their weapons. Their transports emerged from the webway and descended on the planet where their enemy had been spotted. Blood would be spilled this day.
The Forces
The game was played on a circular table with 410 point rosters, using the 40K in 40 minutes rules. I don’t have either roster here, so this is from memory.
Kabal of the Crimson Dawn
HQ
1 Dracon (Dirax) w/ Agoniser, Splinter Pistol and Shadowfield
Elites
5 Mandrakes
Troops
11 Warriors w/ 7 Splinter Rifles, 2 Splinter Cannons and 2 Shredders
1 Sybarite (Enar) w/ Agoniser, Splinter Pistol and Plasma Grenades
10 Warriors w/ 9 Splinter Rifles and 1 Dark Lance
Eldar Force
Elites
4 Warp Spiders w/ Deathspinners
1 Exarch w/ 2 Deathspinners and Powerblades
6 Striking Scorpions w/ Close Combat Weapons and Shuriken Pistols
Troops
6 Dire Avengers w/ Shuriken Catapults
5 Rangers w/ Rifles
The Board
Our circular lunch table again. See the battle report on Minas Three for a description of our “terrain”.
Deployment
Turn 1 – Eldar
In forward command, the Exarch of the Warp Spiders ordered his men forward to engage the enemy head on. The melee troopers stepped into the forest for cover, while the Rangers began circumventing the forest to snipe any enemies that should try to circle around.
Turn 1 – Dark Eldar
Dirax ordered his Sybarite to round the forest to try and flank the enemy troops. As Enar led his men to the debris field he spotted Eldar Rangers readying their rifles. Enar motioned to his Splinter Cannon trooper at the front line and the Warrior fired at the readying snipers. Poison shards killed one of the Rangers and the others sped up their readying procedures.
Turn 2 – Eldar
Following the Exarch’s orders the units plunged into the fray, spotting Enar’s group through the trees. The Scorpions approached the tree line and snapped off several shots, but their shots were parried by the Dark Eldar’s armour. The Warp Spiders emerged from the trees, blinking in from the webway and leveled their weapons at the advancing Warrior squad. Unloading their Deathspinners, they also were blocked by the Dark Eldar light armour. The Rangers raised their rifles and fired at those responsible for the death of their brethren. As they lowered their rifle, they noted that only one Warrior had been decapitated by the shots. As the Warp Spiders jumped back into the tree line the Dire Avengers emerged and bellowed a war cry as they raised their weapons to fight the pirates. They were rapidly overwhelmed by the numerous Warriors, losing two of their own in comparison to the one Warrior they killed. They fell back, knowing that a prolonged assault would decimate their ranks. The pirates pursued their fray and wiped out their numbers, capturing three as slaves.
Turn 2 – Dark Eldar
Enar tasted the blood of the Avengers they had just claimed and felt bloodlust take over. “Fire!” he ordered his men. They level their weapons at the distant snipers and unloaded at the fragile targets. Under the heavy volley, the unit folded and all Rangers dropped to the earth.
Seeing the Warp Spiders hadn’t been able to retreat far enough back into the treeline, Dirax pointed his Splinter Pistol toward the Exarch’s men and snapped off a shot, but the shards got caught up in the trees, or bounced harmlessly off the Spiders’ armour. The sniper group holding the rear ranks similarly fired a volley into the trees. The Splinter ammo was useless versus the Aspect armour, but the Dark Lance carved into the unit and claimed the life of one of the Spiders.
Enar wasn’t finished. “To the trees!” The Dark Eldar plunged into the tree line to engage the nearby Scorpions. Surrounding the deadly Warriors, they descended as a whirling melee of blades. The resolution of the Scorpions held firm at first answering one kill with one of their own, but the obvious bloodlust of the Dark Eldar weakened the resolve of the Scorpions that they attempted to retreat and regroup. But the Warriors were on their heels and quickly brought the unit down, taking three as slaves.
Turn 3 – Eldar
The Exarch realized that the rest of his forces had been decimated or, worse, captured by the Dark Kin. Hoping to avenge the fallen, his squad teleported into their deployment zone, to confront those directly responsible. The Spiders emerged not far from Enar’s group and opened fire with the Deathspinners. The monofilament line ensnared two Warriors and sliced them into pieces. With a satisfied smile, the Exarch whispered a prayer to Khaine before ordering his troops into hand to hand. The Spiders collided with the Warriors and began their assault. A Warrior struck a lucky blow, dropping a Spider, but the Exarch displayed his training. His went into the fray a spinning wheel of death, bringing his powerblades down on a Warrior, continuing on and cleaving the Sybarite Enar clean in half. With the Warrior ranks greatly weakened, the Exarch felt the troops would use discretion and fall back. He was surprised when the bloodlust continued and the remaining Warriors simply stepped over their fallen commander to continue the fight.
Turn 3 – Dark Eldar
Just in case his forward unit failed him, Dirax began moving toward the eastern flank to fight the survivors. The fall of Enar did nothing to the morale of the Warriors. They plunged in again, the Exarch cleaving another in half before the Warrior’s blade could fall. The shriek of the Dark Eldar war cry rose over the landscape as all but one Spider was cut down, including the Exarch. The last one was taken as a slave for the Haemonculi on Commorragh to hone their skills on.
Final
Silence fell as the Eldar corpses cooled on the field.
Eldar force totally destroyed. Decisive Dark Eldar Victory
Comments
Jay: Hey! I won one! I feel kind of bad about the victory though, since my tactics had little to do with it. My luck was great, while Jeff’s was totally unholy. I began to make a similar mistake that I had done in a previous battle by investing a bunch of points in a Dracon and then not using her. I went to correct it, but by then the battle was over. I can’t really comment because everything went great for me… but rolling 10 and 11 on Leadership rolls and getting wholly too many ones on the part of Jeff was my key to victory.
Jay’s MVP Picks:
Dark Eldar – Enar’s Warriors, for being the only force I needed. 140 points of my 400 killed 95% of Jeff’s force…
Runner up = Mandrakes for being in the right place had Enar’s group failed.
Eldar – Warp Spiders, hands down. The Exarch, if left to his own devices, could have been a real problem.
Runner up = Rangers, for dying to the last man, instead of being overrun.
Jeff: I don't like relying on luck, but give me a break. That was horrible.
The more I think about it though, the more I see some things that I could have done differently. Like not charge a unit of 11 with 6 wussies.
Having my rangers in the open was a mistake - I totally misused them and paid for it. The spiders worked well - they were just unlucky, but then so was everyone else.
It all started with my Dire Avengers - if they were alive I'd punish them.
If my Dire Avengers hadn't charged then they wouldn't have retreated and been over run allowing the DE to gain 11 inches on my position in the trees, thus bringing them in range to vaporize the rangers and then charge the scorpions causing them to retreat and gaining another 7 inches there. Leaving nothing left but my Spiders to defend my home turf against the remaining unit (which they all but wasted) and the mandrakes.
Ouch - train of consequences went of the track there.
Eldar MVP - Warp Spiders for lasting to the end and actually doing some damage.
Eldar MVP Runner Up - Rangers - for not running away like little pansies!
Dark Eldar MVP – Enar’s Warriors for putting enough panic into my Avengers and Scorpions to make 'hardened' soldiers run away like little pansies. Time to revamp the training program I think.
Dark Eldar Runner up - Mandrakes, cause if the rest of my army had done something - they would've potentially caused problems.