[Epic] Battle report, part two

From: Sean Smith <seans_at_...>
Date: Mon, 01 Dec 1997 14:19:35 +1300

below, if you are interested, is my reasoning for the forces
I took in blitzkerg battle against the Eldar.


Force Compostion
-----------------

As with most of the armies I design, the prime driving factor
in the units I chose was fear of what the enemy forces are
capable of. My two major fears were the 45cm charge of
aspect warriors with jump packs and the 60cm range of
the Cobra war engine of Vaul and Phantom titans.

To counter the 45cm charge of the aspect warriors I orginally
planned to take heavy weapon space marines, which would use LRs as
transports. However I was afraid that the Eldar would then
just sit back out of range and pound me with Cobras and Phantoms.
So instead I decided to take siege artillery. They could shoot
at the war engines and attack any aspect warriors that were in
charge reach of my infantry. Also artillery would get to shoot
before the war engines, and Cobras wouldn't be able hide behind hills
and buildings.

I could have taken a Warlord titan, but the would not have
fired first, unless I won intaitive and Cobra's could still used pops ups
to avoid being fired at, even if I won intaitive.

I placed the infantry detachment in the two thunderhawks, because flyers
can come on in the first turn. Thereby making the infantry unit in them
to exempt from the reserve rule.

The decision to take the bike detachment was much more difficult. I had
decided between a bike detachment and heavy weapon detachment. In the
end I decided that I needed the higher assault value more than
the additional fire power. The whirlwinds were a last minute add on
, instead of taking an additional small bike detachment.

I took the death company to distract him and hopefully pick off a Phantom,
Cobra's or night spinners if they where to far behind his infantry and
isolated.

Battle Plan (The theory)
-----------------------
           
My battle plan relied on the artillery being available no later than the
second turn. It was odds on that the artillery detachment would be
available on the first turn, because of the rules of the blitz scenerio.

I planned to use the infantry detachment and/or bike detachment to block
the advance of the enemy. The artillery would provide supporting fire
against enemy troops that intended to assualt the bike and/or infantry
detachment. also the artillery could shoot at Cobras and Phantoms that
attempted to pick off the infantry and/or bikes with long range fire.

Hopefully any assault would so reduce his infantry that I could then mount
counter attack, with either the bike or the death company detachment cutting
off the retreat, resulting in the total destruction of the retreating enemy
detachments.

If the enemy choose to engage in a shooting battle, then my infantry and
bikes would retreat out of enemy LOS and my artillery and the thunderhawks
would pound him into submission. As the longest range weapon the Eldar have
is the night spinner(90cm). If he tried to advance close enough to shoot at
my artillery, then he would risk being assaulted by my infantry and bike
detachments.


Battle Plan (the practice)
---------------------------

I couldn't believe my luck when I found out he had not decided not to take
a Phantom or any Cobras. My greatest fear had having split artillery fire
between his aspect warriors and war engines, and doing niether function
sufficently. Note this a strong arguement in favor of well balanced combine
arm armies, instead of weighting an army heavyly in favour of one troop type
e.g LRs. He said he didn't take Cobra's or a Phantom, because they were to
slow for a army that needed to move fast, and he wanted as many jetbikes and aspect warriors as possible.

My two mistakes were firing the artillery at the beginning the movement
phase and not hiding infantry in the woods. I should have waited until the
end of the movement phase and then pounded his aspect warriors with my
artillery, when they where outside of the wave serpants. He wouldn't have
known that I had artillery, because the artillery would have remained hidden.Also my artillery would have had more fire power, because more units would
have been under each barrage template.

Second my infantry should have hidden in the woods, to avoid being shot at.
Because they only had 30cm range vs his aspect warriors 45cm charge range.
Other than that, the battle went well, sad about the bikes, but they were
casualties I couldn't avoid taking. At least the bike detachment forced him
to split his aspect warriors, between two forces.
  
 

       
-- 
 Sean Smith 
 
 Home - Seans_at_...
 
-- 
Received on Mon Dec 01 1997 - 01:19:35 UTC

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