[Epic] 4 Player battle report. Long. I mean that.

From: Eugene E.W. <eug_at_...>
Date: Fri, 2 Aug 2097 03:02:15 -0400

        That 4 player game was pretty cool, so I thought I'd do a report on it. It
turned out a lot longer, and better, than I expected. Comments, tactical,
literary, or otherwise, would be appreciated. Hey, think this is the type
of thing that new GW 'zine would be interested in? :)
Writing it was fun, anyhow.

Princeps Vance Belvedere of the MHBT (warlord class) Annihilation was
somewhat concerned. The mission parameters had clearly stated that the
operation could be expected to encounter Ork resistance. That was entirely
understandable; Magrittha was an ork world, and had been for many years.
Orks, Belvedere was entirely prepared to handle. Orks, however, were not
the only thing the Annihilation's sensors were reporting.

The hot sun sent waves of heat rolling off the towering form of the
Annihilation as it stalked with massive strides towards the decaying centre
of the abandoned Imperial city. Flanked by a pair of Warhound Titans and
followed by a sea of Rhinos and a scattering of tanks, the massive
centrepiece of the Midnight Hammer battleforce reeked of menace. It swung
it's head from side to side, glaring ferociously at the swift columns of
the approaching enemy. The surprisingly numerous and distressingly
disparate enemy.

To the left of the grim icon of mechanical death, a blood-red river of
daemons, rhinos, and cruel brass machineries of destruction rumbled with
dark purpose towards the tall building at the centre of the city. Two tall
Lords of Battle towered high above the demented followers of Khorne, shafts
of light glinting off the Doomburners and Deathstorms each mounted.

To the right of the Annihilation, brightly painted wave serpents and falcon
grav-tanks from the Saim-Hann craftworld cut through the air, followed by
the smoothly contoured menace of three engines of Vaul. In the center of
the force, the ground and sky broke up into a cubist maelstrom of broken
space, signalling the presence of a large Eldar titan.

Directly ahead, on the other side of the deserted city, a large ork force
roared forwards. It's numbers were partially obscured by the thick cloud of
black smoke belched out of the ungainly battlewagons that made up the
majority of it, but the smoke was not nearly enough to conceal the huge
bulk of the Mega-Gargant that led the host. Crudely painted banners drooped
from the huge guns which protuded in every direction out of the ponderous
behemoth.

Inside the meters-thick armor of the Annihilation, reports of increasing
urgency clomoured for the Princep's attention. Mentally filing the
information away until needed, Belvedere gestured for silence and activated
the command channel.
"Several detachments of hostile troops are approaching the mission
objective. Securing the location is no longer a possibility. Strike force
Democritus will secure the object and withdraw, remainder of squadron will
offer support. I want the Ravenous to assist me in cutting the traitors off
from the objective. Keep the range to the Eldar as open as possible; those
pulsars will punch through our armour without much difficulty. Annihilator
out."

Not particularily far away, a similar set of orders was being broadcast by
a very different man. Brother-captain Rigeth, of the World-Eaters, had been
very angry from the moment reports had informed him that Space Marines were
in the area. Being angry made him very happy, so it was with almost
childlike glee he received the news that Eldar and Orks would also probably
interfere with his plans. He screamed orders at the slavering
Bloodthirsters that flew alongside his rhino, and then focussed intently on
the onrushing force of Marines, waiting for the Firelords to arrive.

'WAAAAAAGGGGGHHHH!!!!' screamed 'eadThumpa da Warboss, seated comfortably
atop the massive ork battlefortress. He was pleased to see that there was
gonna be more to fight with than pansies. He waved his chainaxe and shouted
incoherently, content with the world and his place within it.

Valadrion gazed uncomfortably at the temperature gauge. It had been
creeping steadily upward, and the gaurdian was beginning to worry that the
Avatar's special compartment was losing containment. He was worried enough
about the impending conflict, without the prospect of the Eldar Avatar of
War melting a hole in the bottom of his Wave Serpent. Hearing a crackle of
orders over the com, he pushed the throttle up to its maximum and gazed
silently at the tall building in the centre of the city as the ground
blurred beneath him.


With a wailing scream, three firelords hurtled out of the sky, fire
shooting volcanically in all directions as they hurtled over the Hammers.
Princeps Belvedere watched, stunned, as virtually the entirety of strike
force Democritus was obliterated in the brutal assault. Rhinos exploded in
flames, scattering broken bodies in power armor as they ground to a halt.
Only one rhino survived the withering barrage, along with a sparse handful
of perhaps twenty marines who managed to pull themselves from the wreckage.
Captain Democritus was not among them.

While Belvedere desperately attempted to construct a new plan out of the
tattered fragments of the old, Brother-Captain Rigeth's plan was rumbling
along excellently. His doomwings had crushed the attempts of the
Thunderbolts to intercept his Firelords, and the carnage inflicted by those
Firelords had been beyond his expectation. His marines clambered out of
their rhinos in three carefully chosen firing positions, among either ruins
or buildings. The easternmost group reported ork activity, but in a quick
firefight the berserkers cleared the buildings of the pitiful Kommandos.
Rigeth's eyes, however, were still focussed to the west, where his four of
his bloodthirsters sped ahead of the rest of his troops to smash into the
Predators and Land Raiders of the Midnight Hammer force. Caught unawares by
Rigeth's use of cover and the daemon's astonishing speed, four of the tanks
were destroyed before the Annihilation was able to bring it's massive
firepower to bear. One of the daemons was annihilated where it stood, and
the rest, their mission accomplished, fled out of range to safety.

Rigeth's voice was a constant, harsh rumble, punctuated with obscenities,
as he spat further orders to his troops. The Traitor Marines settled into
overwatch as a lone bloodthirster sped into the heart of the city and
returned, a small object clutched in its taloned hand. Rigeth's mouth
twitched as the prospect of victory danced before his eyes. If his marines
could only protect the Thirster long enough to escape with the prize...

Deep inside it's heat-shielded sanctum, the Avatar stirred restlessly. The
prize must be won, and this might be the only opportunity. The servant of
Khorne must be caught, and immediately. His warriors had not been quite
quick enough, and they would most likely have to pay for this tardiness in
blood...

Belvedere's voice crackled ceaselessly over the comlink as his troops swung
into position. Brilliant streaks of light cut the air as drop pods slammed
down to the north of the Chaos force, cutting off their route of escape.
The Annihilation and the Ravenous swung around to complete the
encirclement. The only route still open to the traitors was to the east,
where, Belvedere fervently hoped, they would find themselves blocked by the
advancing orks. Belvedere glanced at the mass of wave serpents speeding
toward the Bloodthirster and his traitorous defenders, then back to the
towering form of the Lord of Battle which rapidly approached. With grim
certainty, Belvedere gave the order to fire, his void shields crackling as
the first enemy shots began to register.

The effects of the imperial firepower was devastating. It was as if the
emperor himself had given them his blessing, for the power of the warp was
not enough to save the daemonic entities from the brutal weight of steel
that exploded among them. (ooc, played IT card 'the daemon', reduces
daemonic save to 6 for turn. Perfect timing.) Caught in the open, flesh
hounds and plaguebearers were torn to shreds and the Lord of Battle
opposing the imperials slewed to the side as the Annihilator's Plasma
Blastgun ripped off one of its tracks. Casualties from the return fire were
light, as the World Eaters' weapons were cruelly outranged by the Imperial
Titans and Land Raiders.

Rigeth's mouth twitched as the Thirster was vapourised by a blast from a
Marine tarantula. From his central position, he could see the eldar wave
serpents swoop in to assault the position it had so recently occupied.
Those marines had better hold, he thought darkly, and if they didn't, the
rest of the Daemons would have to. An aide was cackling gleefully over the
intercom about the Berserkers inflicting heavy losses on the Orcs, but
Rigeth's mind was entirely focussed on a small object lying discarded in
the ruins not far away...

'EadThumpa was confused. As far as he knew, he was s'possed to be gettin'
some little orange widget, so he didn't quite know what to make of the
current situation. The vast majority of da boyz were cowering in whatever
cover they could manage against the storm of bolter fire from da red 'umies
in da buildin'. He was shouting at dem to get up and give da 'umies a taste
of da bolt from close range, but each time he tried to get 'em going their
gaze fell upon the mass of demolished battle wagons and broken ork corpses
that lay in a swathe around the Marine firebase, and they refused to budge.

Frustrated, 'Eadthumpa looked over to see how da Big Wun wuz doin'. He
could see its power fields crackling with energy as Falcons and firestorms
threw storms of lascannon fire against the gigantic machine. He was pleased
to see a falcon blown to shreds by the Big Lobba, but then his eyes widened
as white-hot blasts of energy lanced out of the wierd buncha swirly colours
he thought must be one of those pansy Titans wiv da holo-tings. Every shot
slammed into da Big Wun, and 'Eadthumpa's ears twitched as the last couple
of shots pierced the Gargants powerfields and damaged its head. He grinned
as the massive machine's guns swivelled to face it's assailant, and was
gratified to hear the deafening roar they made as they poured fire at the
elusive Eldar war machine. He was somewhat disappointed at the lack of any
noticable result. He was briefly cheered when da Deth Ray crippled one of
the huge Engines of Vaul, but mildly alarmed when the return fire of the
engines touched of a huge explosion in the ork monstrosity, setting part of
it alight with flames. Struck with an unfamiliar sensation of worry,
'Eadthumpa shouted a request into his comlink and shouted at the driva of
the Battlefortress to get movin' again.

Valedrion winced as a power-armour clad arm bounced off his windshield. He
was glad that the assault was going well, but he couldn't help feeling a
bit queasy at all the, well, distasteful things going on around him. Fire
Dragons and Striking Scorpions were tearing into the Khornate warriors with
a ferocity which appalled him. The marines shouted hoarsely and fought
tenaciously, but disorganised by Imperial fire and overwhelmed with psychic
assaults from a veritable legion of warlocks, they fell like grain, in
rows. Valedrion swerved his vehicle as the Avatar itself stepped before
him, and plowed through a cluster of marines. An explosion rocked his
vehicle and he looked around wildly to see a huge Lord of Battle bearing
down upon him. Panicked, Valedrion pulled his vehicle around quickly, and
as shots pattered around him, accelerated away to the safety of the
buildings.

Belvedere watched as the ferocious Eldar assault overwhelmed and
annihilated the World Eaters in the ruins, only to be driven back, against
all odds, by the firepower of the Lord of Battles and a few Great Unclean
Ones. He smiled grimly as the Annihilation stalked implacably forward. He
didn't think the remnants of the daemon detachment would offer much
resistance to three Imperial Titans.

Rigeth kicked his rhino in an ecstasy of blind fury as what was left of his
daemon packs were blasted out of the ruins by the huge Midnight Hammer
Titans. A lone rhino and a handful of marines were advancing on the ruin,
clearly intent on locating the object. Rigeth fired his bolter into the
ground in front of the withdrawing daemons and shouted at them a very
grisly explanation of their likely fate in the warp should they fail
Khorne. He looked up into the sky and waited for his doomwings.

Belvedere cursed as his last rhino exploded. The Traitorous airpower was
killing him! He watched angrily as the doomwings sped away and another
Bloodthirster retrieved a tiny object from the ruins and fled. He glanced
over at the Eldar massing in the buildings for another assault -- this was
going to be a very close run thing, indeed...

'EadThumpa fired his bolter wildly at the approaching Lord of Battle. He
was pretty sure he was nowhere near in range, but that didn't really bother
him much. The Lord of Battle was sending his troops scurrying for cover,
yet again, and he was tired of it. Da Big 'Un was approaching, however, and
he was confident it would deal with his problems: first those berserkers,
and then dis Lord of Battle, if he didn't get it first himself, of course.

Belvedere watched with quiet relief as the hulking Lord of Battles before
him imploded into the warp. He could hear the crew cheering, and he was
happy himself; it certainly didn't look as if he'd have to be dealing with
the other one any time soon. The Ravenous was strafing the daemons with its
Turbolaser batteries (to little effect, he noticed with displeasure), when
a distress call came from the Carnivore. His viewscreen swiveled, and he
saw an amourphous chaos of colours that could only be an Eldar Phantom or
Warlock Titan firing massive bolts of energy into the beleagered Warhound.
It had already lost both void shields, and taken some hull damage, but
mercifully the Eldar weapons fell silent to recharge. His Land Raiders were
wreaking havoc among the Eldar wave serpents and Firestorms, and taking
heavy losses from the return fire. Eldar losses were much heavier, he was
certain, but they had many more tanks to begin with.

Valedrion crawled from the wrackage of his wave serpent, profoundly
thankful he was still alive. There was a falcon nearby, firing at some
marines hiding in the blood-soaked ruins filled with World-Eater bodies. He
ran over to it and jumped around, waving his arms, until it finished its
attack, settled to the ground, and opened its hatch for him.

The Avatar raised its sword. The surviving aspect warriors shouted their
keening battlecries and followed as it charged out of the ruins. The Eldar
swarmed over the ragged and battered Daemons, singing songs of death. The
Avatar charged straight towards it's target; a massive Bloodthirster,
cradling a small object protectively in its hand. The daemon grinned evilly
and swung its brazen axe at the incarnation of Khaela Mensha Khaine. The
axe rebounded off the War-God's iron flesh, and with a surge of pure power,
the Avatar ran the Daemon through with it's dripping blade. The Avatar
reached to the ground, picked up a tiny object, and shouted in triumph. The
aspect warriors cheered in response. As the Avatar exulted, a dark shadow
enveloped it. Turning, it beheld three huge Titans towering above it. As
the War-God raised it's dripping blade in defiance, the Titans levelled
their weapons.

Belvedere nodded in satisfaction as the Avatar was obscured by the massive
weight of Imperial firepower. As the guns fell silent, Belvedere peered
intently at the smoking crater where the Avatar had once stood. A wisp of
vapor drifted into the air, but of the Avatar, no trace remained. The Eldar
shrieked with terror and fled. Belvedere smiled as assault marines,
survivors of Democritus's devastated detachment, ran to claim the small
orange object that had, incredibly, survived the titanic firepower that had
been unleashed upon it.

WAAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHH!!!!! screamed 'EadThumpa, as the afterimage of the
explosion danced in front of his eyes. He picked himself off the ground and
shook some oil out of his ears. So much for his Battlefortress, although
the other one was still okay. He didn't mind, particularily, however,
because of the very gratifying consequences of his request for assistance
from the Mega-Gargant. Dat had been some good shootin' from da Big 'Un, dat
was for sure. Part of the Berserker firebase had been blasted in by the
Crooz missile, and dead Bersekers had been hurled as far away as thirty
meters from the building. The ground shook with the force of explosions as
the entire firepower of the Mega-Gargant was brought to bear against the
Chaos bastion that had impeded the orks for so long. With crazed yells and
bolter fire, the orks advanced.

Rigeth's entire body shook with rage. His lips twitched, his eyes rolled,
his limbs convulsed. He hadn't been this happy in as long as he could
remember. His one remaining firebase had been destroyed by the orks, the
other Lord of Battle was about to go down, and he didn't have enough other
troops remaining to even remotely threaten a single Titan, let alone three.
"All troops fall back! The firelords will cover your withdrawal," he
croaked hoarsely into his comlink. Turning to Kilgare, beside him, he said
"Consider yourself to be in command. I want you to get as many troops out
as you can." Then he grinned fiendishly, stirred his chainaxe to whirling
life, and charged toward the Annihilation.

"Strike force Democritus" said Belvedere in a relaxed voice "I want you to
get out of here, with the objective, now. The Land Raider and Whirlwind
from Damocles will cover your escape. We will hold of the Orks, and attempt
to divert as many Eldar from you as possible. He twisted the Annihilation
due south, to face the approaching Mega-Gargant head-on. It looked to be
severely damaged, and Belvedere hoped to finish it off quickly and then
deal with the Eldar Titan. He had no desire to be caught between the two of
them for any length of time. It was an unfortunate fact that his forces
were becoming sandwiched between the Orks and Eldar, and Belvedere hoped to
escape the trap before it closed too tightly.

'Eadthumpa watched excitedly from atop his commandeered battlewagon as he
hurtled toward the scattered Midnight Hammer marines. Da big 'umie gargant
was fightin' Da Big 'Un, and 'Eadthumpa was enjoying the show. Da Mekboy
speedsta wiv da Deff Ray was joinin' in too, and hit da 'umie ting on da
leg. Dat Eldar Titan was shootin at da 'umie too, and da 'umie gargant sure
wasn't lookin' so good. 'Eadthumpa's enjoyment of the show was interupted
when his wagon was blown up by concealed Midnight Hammer terminators,
catapulting him high into the air.

Valedrion was feeling a trifle nervous. He was accustomed to the comforting
hum of a Wave Serpent's warp field, reassuring him that he was perfectly
safe from harm. It was an illusion, he knew, but a pleasant one. The Falcon
seemed dangerously fragile without it, and Valedrion was uncomfortably
aware that the Imperials were running out of targets to shoot at, aside
from him. Only one in four Wave Serpents remained, two of the three Engines
of Vaul had been destroyed by that cursed Gargant, and the Firestorms had
been thinned out very thoroughly by the Imperial Land Raiders. The falcons
were cutting off the Imperial retreat, and Valedrion was expecting the full
weight of the Imperials to come crashing against his flimsy detachment at
any moment. It was to his distinct relief that they did not.

Sergeant Octavius was proud to become the ranking officer of his
detachment, but his pride was tinged with more than a little regret,
because he was very far down the chain indeed. He had survived the
destruction of his Rhino, the mad dash through Eldar fire into the ruins,
and had been steeling himself to attempt to cut through the line of Eldar
Falcons when Brutus' squad was torn apart by a fusillade from a Firestorm,
leaving the mission objective lying by itself next to the blood-soaked
remains of Brutus. Octavius made an instant decision. He shouted for the
fourteen remaining Marines of Strike Force Democritus to follow him, and
ran as fast as he could, seized the small orange box, and dived into the
cover of the ruins, as the Eldar Aspect warriors charged.

The foruteen marines were outnumbered two to one by Dire Avengers and
Howling Banshees, who were further supported by the surviving Wave
Serpents. It should have been absolutely no contest. However, as the Aspect
Warriors approched, the Annihilation somehow managed to spare some fire
from its uneven battle, which, along with support from the Ravenous, broke
up the Aspect Warrior's advance and forced some to take shelter amid the
body-clogged ruins. Sergeant Octavius siezed his opportunity with both
hands. Screaming a war cry, he led his Marines in a desperate attack
against the disorganised Eldar. For several minutes the two sides were
locked in a vicious hand-to-hand struggle, but, with the assistance of some
excellently placed grenades, Marine Power Armour, and blind arrogance, the
Midnight Hammers drove the Eldar into a full retreat, slaying nearly half
their opponents for the loss of two-thirds of their own number. The guns of
the Ravenous persuaded the Aspect Warriors not to tarry.(n.b. Octavius is
head of the cool infantry stand I mentioned. This is just the beginning...)

Princeps Vance Belvedere of the MHBT Annihilation was more than somewhat
concerned. The Carnivore had been destroyed by a blast of pulsar fire from
the Eldar Titan. Savage fire from the Eldar and Ork war machines had
brutalized his Titan, stripping away his void shields in moments and
damaging first his leg, and then his command bridge itself. Adepts
struggled desperately to put out fires and restore full battle control
while his Titan stood dangerously immobile. The Mega-Gargant was stubbornly
refusing to die, and if it kept that up much longer, it would be his Titan
instead that went down. Using every ounce of his experience and
intelligence, Belvedere fought to keep his Titan upright, his guns on
target, his power suppy steady, all the while shouting orders to his
efficient, if extremely anxious crew. Reports from all stations flooded in:
damage assessments, targeting reports, shielding reports, and, finally,
reports that the damage to the targeting systems had been repaired.
Belvedere muttered a prayer to the Emperor as his Plasma Blastgun reached
full power once more, and then watched with exultation as it punched into
the Mega-Gargant, setting off a tremendous series of internal explosions
that left the metal terror a broken wreck.

'EadThumpa blearily lifted his head in time to see Da Big 'Un
cataclysmically destroyed. His jaw dropped open as he watched the titanic
idol to the great gods of the Orks shake with the force of it's own
detonations, and then sit, a useless hulk, burning fiercely. He stood up,
and thought hard for a second. "Well, dat's dat, den." he said to the
shaken orks around him. "Lets give da 'umies a taste of da bolt, cuz've
dat." They looked at him, uncertain. "WAAAAAAAAAGGGGHHHH!!" he roared. They
grinned, and the small cluster of orks shouted their battle cry in
discordant unison.

Okay, I've been at this a while, and I'm gonna go to sleep now (I know,
wussy, wussy, I've heard it before) If you've read through this lot,
hopefully you like it so far. It's almost finished, really, just a bit more
to do, but I'm blasted. We're kind of halfway into turn 5, by the way.
Ugggh, I go sleep

Eugene
Received on Fri Aug 02 2097 - 07:02:15 UTC