A new surprise for you this week; A battle report from Fuzzmans and my game last night. It was the Eldar fighting to keep their outpost on an ice-world from the invading forces of the Imperiums mighty Space Marines. Please excuse any errors, I wrote this when I got back last night, and I was mighty tired.
Turn 1, Don.
3 Drop pods arrived around front of my force, holding two dreadnoughts and a squad of marines that split in two. The marine squads opened fire, killing my harlequins before they could do anything. Shooting at the Reapers, however, got Don nowhere.
Turn 1, Matt.
Disembarked the Fire Dragons in front of the far right Dreadnought.
Bladestormed (whoops) the marines, and Reaper fire trimmed their numbers further. Fire Dragons immobilised and wrecked all the weapons on the Dreadnought they were nearest to, leaving it to fume as it sat there. Their transport fired a Krak missile at the other Dreadnought, leaving it shaken for a turn.
Turn 2, Don.
Two landspeeders dropped in thanks to the homing beacons on the drop pods.
Dons shots were aimed at the Dire Avengers this time, killing a large number of them, but neither squad ran. Everything else was stunned, immobilised, or had only just arrived, so nothing much happened here.
Turn 2, Matt.
Both of my reserves ( the Scorpions and the Warwalkers ) arrived, far too early for the scorpions to be useful, although the walkers were able to remove the arms of the still dangerous dreadnought. The Fire Dragons re-embarked, and the Wave Serpent moved them towards the middle of the board, taking a pot-shot at one of the speeders, immobilising it. The majority of my force was left to target the land speeders, as their weapons could do nothing against the armour of both the drop pods and the dreadnoughts. However, to tie the still mobile dreadnought up for a turn or two, I charged a squad of Dire Avengers into it. This came back to haunt me next turn, and for my troubles I lost an Avenger.
Turn 3, Don.
Another two Drop pods arrived, as did the scouts, and the other land speeder. One pod had the librarian in it, which was a worry for me. The other disgorged a large squad of marines which immediately proceeded to team up with the scouts against the beleaguered Scorpions and War walkers. The land speeder landed where my Dire Avengers had been standing before they charged the dreadnought, in a nearly perfect spot for shooting my reapers. Thankfully, my farseer had been keeping up with Fortune each turn, so most of the failed saves got re-rolled into successes. The Dire Avengers decided to break and run away this turn, and the dreadnought consolidated 6” after them, preventing them from being able to regroup during my turn. The scouts slaughtered the flat-footed Scorpions, and one of the walkers was stunned.
Turn 3, Matt.
The Fire Dragons disembarked and, along with the remaining Reapers on that flank, managed to reduce the Librarians squad down to the Librarian himself. The two surviving Avengers charged the other squad to have left the latest Drop pod, killing one, and losing one in return. The walkers moved and had a round of shooting at the scouts and marines that were harassing them, killing around four of them.
Turn 4, Don.
The final Speeder turned up, the Librarian killed the Fire Dragons, the War Walkers got caught n assault, loosing one of their number in the process, The remaining Dire Avenger Exarch did nothing and got killed for his troubles, the Dreadnought killed the farseer and the Dark Reapers he was with in close combat, and the Drop pods weren't far off killing the other Reaper squad.
We finished there, as it was getting late, and I was as good as dead by that point anyway. All of my remaining units were locked up with opponents they couldn't beat, or were so numerous as to weigh them down by sheer numbers. I have already planning a better force for taking on the POD (Pods Of Doom™ ) and this time I have it written down ahead of time. Now, if only I can get my dice to work for me...
