[Epic] rest of 4 player battle report(not nearly as long as the first, but still a bit long)

From: Eugene E.W. <eug_at_...>
Date: Fri, 2 Aug 2097 15:26:07 -0400

Right, so here's the rest of that battle report, continuing right from
where it left off. As you probably recall, the Annihilation had just
succeeded in destroying Da Big 'Un, and Sergeant Octavius had driven the
Eldar out of the ruins (third time the aspects were broken, incidentally).

Lascannon fire detonated on every side of Octavius and his handful of
companions as they huddled for cover in the body-choked ruins. It seemed as
if every Eldar vehicle had targeted his small band for destruction. The
Eldar tanks seemed to be gearing up for an assault, which meant that their
fire was considerably less accurate than usual. Octavius credited his
survival to that fact. He barked an order to his men, and they levelled
their bolters and their lone missile launcher once again on the broken
outline of the Eldar titan. Shell casings littered the ground as Octavius's
men called upon their years of familiarity with their weapons to fill the
air with as formidable a firepower as the five of them could muster. Behind
him, Octavius could hear the scouts and Terminators of drop force Cassius
doing exactly the same thing in the face of the onrushing ork force. Dull
explosions punctuated the continuous rattle of the bolters as one greenskin
vehicle after another detonated under the deadly accurate fire. Octavius
spared no backwards glance, however, as his entire concentration was
focussed on his quick movements from cover to cover, his lightning fast
reloading actions, and his desperate attempts to separate the true form of
the Titan from the multitude of images which concealed it. With an abrupt
surge of joy, he saw a blossom of fire expand inside the crazy gyrations of
the holofield, reflected over and over again by the bizarre eldar
technology until it seemed as if the air itself were ablaze. Octavius
suspected that the damage had been done to one of the Titans long-barreled
arm weaons, but he had no way of confirming his conjecture. His eyes
widening, he saw the manifold reflections of the Eldar war machine swing
their sights away from the Annihilation and point their deadly weapons, as
nearly as he could tell, directly at him. Octavius crouched down in the
ruins and commended his soul to the Emperor. (I had forgotten to mention in
the Cool Stand blurb that their two firepower (on overwatch) had caused the
only damage the eldar Warlock titan suffered from shooting all game, and
stopped it firing one of its Pulsars for a turn)

Princeps Belvedere, no longer preoccupied with his Titan's desperate
situation, cast his quick gaze over the displays before him and assessed
the situation. The Traitors had withdrawn or been annihilated, and both the
orks and the Eldar had suffered heavy casualties. His force was now,
however, completely encircled. To the south and east, orc battlewagons and
infantry, led by the remaining Battlefortress, exchanged close range fire
with drop force Cassius and the Eldar tanks. To the southwest towered the
Eldar titan, overshadowing the wreckage of the Cobra that had so seriously
damaged his command centre -- he would have to commend whichever tarantula
it was that had brought it down. To the west, the Ravenous attempted to
burst through the remnants of the Aspect warriors, which along with a
handful of wraithgaurd, attempted to cut off his retreat. To the north, a
column of warbikes completed the encirclement. Belvedere began to bring his
titan around, limping from the leg damage, his attention centred around a
handful of Marines, holed up in the ruins that had already seen so much
bloodshed.

The temperature in Sergeant Octavius's power armour spiked as his
auto-senses whited out to protect his vision. He realized that he was still
somehow alive, for the moment at least. The first ravenous blast from the
Pulsar appeared to have missed his position. Lascannon beams flickered on
every side as he waited for the next Pulsar bolt which would almost
certainly seal his fate. As shrapnel from explosions pattered off his
armour, he gradually realized that it didn't seem to be coming. The loud
roar of a warbike jolted him into action. He swung himself into his firing
position and watched, amazed, as a ferocious firefight raged between Orc
Battlewagons, buggies, and warbikes, and the Eldar Falcons, supported by
the huge Eldar Titan. Octavius levelled his bolter at the nearest enemy
vehicle -- a warbike mounting a whooping ork warrior, and calmly detonated
its fuel tank with a precise burst of fire as it swept towards his
position. Overwhelmed by the weight of firepower directed against them, the
Orks fell back, suffering tremendous losses amongst their bikers. Without
pause, Octavius swivelled his bolter to fire into the onrushing Falcon
Grav-tanks. Out of the corner of his vision, he could see that the Ravenous
had blasted the Aspect Warriors and Wraithgaurd out of it's path. If this
final Eldar assault could be driven off, Octavius's escape route was clear.
Shuriken discs clanged off the rocks around him as Octavius dived out of
the way of an onrushing Falcon. Palming a krak grenade in his left fist, he
rolled to his feet, and, taking a few quick steps, leaped onto the side of
the Eldar tank as it slewed around for another pass. He heard brother
Antony cry out beside him as he slammed the grenade down onto the side of
the vehicle, in what he thought was a vulnerable spot. He hurled himself
away as the slim Eldar tank burst into flame, destroyed by the detonation
of his grenade.

Valedrion hefted the shuriken catapult with some trepidation as the Falcon
sped into the ruins. He was familiar with the operation of the weapon, of
course, but as a wave-serpent pilot, he had never expected to put his
training into practise. He realised that they were a trifle short on
infantry just now, and he understood that the vehicular crew could not be
spared, but the prospect of being alone in the open with only mesh armour
to protect him was, frankly, terrifying. The Falcon slewed to a halt, the
hatch opened, and with a deep breath, Valedrion leaped through it. The
action saved his life. He had gotten barely four feet away from the vehicle
when it erupted in flames. Valedrion's eyes widened as a power-armoured
body hurtled away from the exploding wreckage, to land perhaps ten feet
distant. It was beginning to clamber to its feet when Valedrion levelled
the Shuriken Catapult with a panicked gesture and sent a score of the razor
sharp discs arcing into the midnight-blue figure. It jerked like a
marionette and collapsed. With a surge of excitement, Valedrion saw,
clipped to its belt, the orange box he had been told to secure. He ran over
with unconscious grace, knelt, and freed the tiny box from the Midnight
Hammer Space Marine. The Marine twitched spasmodically as Valedrion rose
and, seeing no opposition standing, ran for the nearest falcon. A shell
from the Annihilation exploded not very far away, throwing him off balance,
but in moments he was safely ensconced in the Grav-tank, and speeding away.

'EadThumpa was angry. He watched the shattered hulk of the last Battle
fortress burn fiercely. 'Dese blue 'umies', he thought, 'were almost as bad
as dose red 'wuns 'ad been', and wiv da Big 'Un gone, and now the
Battlefortress, he wasn't sure how to get rid of dem. He and his little
band of Orks were the only Orks he could see anywhere nearby. A long way to
the south, he could see some infantry and battlewagons runnin' for it, and
those were the only other orks he could see standin' upright anywhere at
all.
"Uh, boss," said Sorehead "I don't fink da..." (he counted for a few
moments on his fingers) "five of us can take dat big 'Umie Gargant wot
blowed up da Big Wun." He cringed away from the expected blow to his
noggin', but 'Eadthumpa stood there silently, lost in thought.
"You iz right," he said finally. "We took a thumpin' dis time, dat's for
sure. On da bright side, wiv da Big Wun torched, I is probably da Warlord
now, unless Shouta da Skar got out of it before it blowed up. I don't fink
he did, though." The boyz strained with the effort of assimilating this
unusually long sentence, then began to grin and nod.
"Dat's right, boss," said Sorehead, "You iz numba wun!"

Princeps Belvedere supressed his urge to violate the sacred air of the
Titan with blasphemous oaths. The last of strike force Democritus had been
wiped out by the Eldar Falcons, and the objective had been lost. Belvedere
suspected that, even if the Eldar did manage to escape with the tiny
object, it would be too late for them to make full use of their possession,
but its loss was still a humiliating defeat. The Annihilation limped
forward as fast as it's damaged legs could carry it, but the Falcons were a
very great deal faster. One of the Grav tanks exploded under the weight of
the Annihilators fire, but Belvedere was sickly certain that the objective
was not aboard. His Titan rocked as a Pulsar blast dropped one of his void
shields, and Belvedere swung his weapons in line with the amorphous shape
as the Falcons accelerated out of range. His fire and that of the Ravenous
failed to find a solid target among the swirling shapes that clouded his
sensors, but Belvedere was not overly concerned. Taking a few more giant
steps forward with his tremendous machine, he brought his titanic chainfist
around with a smooth sweep. It travelled through approximately half it's
arc before it abruptly met resistance. A shrieking metallic whine filled
the air, and the holofield vanished abruptly to reveal a tall Warlock
Titan. It stumbled, as the chainfist dug through its torso, before falling
slowly backward, breaking into two pieces as it struck the ground. A
bizarre whistling sounded in Belvedere's ears as the souls trapped in the
tall machine's infinity circuit were sucked into the warp. Belvedere
stepped away from the Titan's crumpled body and surveyed the area for
further threats, but none presented themselves. The Midnight Hammers held
the field.

Far away, Valedrion relaxed in the bosom of one of the three surviving
Eldar Falcons. The tiny orange box, now tinted with red, rested upon his
reclining chest. His helmet sat on the seat beside him, and his long golden
hair lay in a pool above his head as he reclined on the long couch. His
eyes drifted closed and he began to snore lightly, gratified and relieved
as he dreamt of returning to a peaceful life in his home.


that's all, folks. Hope you enjoyed it. Some general tactical notes, based
on events in the game. Some of them might seem obvious, but hey, they're
inspired by direct examples.
1 don't let tightly packed rhino's full of space marines get strafed by
firelords
2 Imperial titans are really good at clearing out infantry with firefights
3 In multiplayer scenarios with a 'win the game by taking objective x',
realize that unless you get the win fast, your forces will be annihilated.
Vide Chaos.
4 Be very careful about allowing people to go before you in the assault
phase. The Ork player kept doing that and then getting his detachments
broken and made useless. The Imperials did it too, but Titans can't be
broken, and on several occasions it allowed the Imperials to drive off
whoever was left after the big assault between Eldar and Chaos, and so
claim the objective.
5 Two good ways to deal with space marines on overwatch seems to be
shooting them with Titams or Gargants from beyond 30cm (both happened in
our game), and overwhelming them with Aspect warriors.
6 A note on those Aspect Warriors: every single stand contained a warlock
and an Exarch! That many warlocks seems excessive; I think about half your
stands should be more than enough to guarantee Psychic superiority. Still,
he always got that +1...
7 I think the plan of assaulting the marines and firefighting the daemons,
even though it didn't work, was an excellent one.
8 Land raiders kick ass on overwatch
9Bloodthrirsters are ridiculously fast and nasty. They always seem to lose
the firefights, however (I wonder why).
That's all I can think of off the top of my head to say about the battle.
It was really fun to be fighting three different people at once, and having
the Cheese Puff really made it crazy, and stopped anyone complaining that
they were being ganged up on for no reason. If any of the details of what
happened are unclear in the narrative, I'll be happy to explain.

Regards,
Eugene
Received on Fri Aug 02 2097 - 19:26:07 UTC