Eldar Transgressors Vanquished
Overlord Ke’ Krakeneckh led a force of 1998 to rid the Eplerrician System of an ancient enemy. Intercepted Eldar transmissions had indicated a probe in strength from an unknown craftworld. He took four destroyers including one heavy, a Triarch stalker, four wraiths with whip coils, two units of immortals, one led by the overlord and one by a cryptek, the Annihilation Barges NNV Whip Hand, Blood Harvest and Withering Fire.
In reserve he had the Night Scythes NNV Vital Component and NNV Alacrity with a squad of deathmarks and warriors aboard, both led by crypteks. He deployed with the destroyers on the left, two barges in the centre flanking the stalker and the Withering Fire in cover on the right. The Whip Hand was also in woodland. The wraiths took the right flank with the overlord and his unit behind them, the other immortals who favoured tesla carbines rather than the usual gauss blasters were in cover on the left of the right flank.
The enemy came on first with dawn approaching and opened fire, knocking out a destroyer on the left and inflicting casualties on the cryptek led immortals. They had three troop squads, guardians with heavy weapon platforms floating amongst each unit. These were located broadly facing our centre and left with two unit in woodland.
On the right was a Falcon, at the rear of the formation a Wave Serpent transport plus a Fire Prism tank towards the left. Also on the left, a wraith lord lurked. Their warlord Farseer was with the central troops along with a couple of warlock bodyguards and many of their troop units had Exarch leaders. One in particular on the right was a powerful Executioner.
We weathered the early barrage and advanced and opened fire, unfortunately with little effect, however, our wraiths on the right assaulted and wrecked the Wave Serpent for first blood but its squad of Fire dragons disembarked unscathed. Two units of rangers had infiltrated high ground on the right and centre; the right hand group broke early as it took losses from our immortals.
The enemy now brought on a flyer in the centre and massed fire destroyed our tesla immortals right centre. Our destroyers whose fire had been ineffective though they had reduced the wraith lord to one wound were now assaulted by it from long range and destroyed easily by it.
None of our reserves appeared but the enemy flyer was brought down by the withering fire of the Withering Fire. Our wraiths next assaulted and destroyed easily the dragons. The Eldar continued psychic attacks throughout, even avoiding warp perils by some arcane device. Their fleeing rangers rallied and banshees disembarked from the transport on the right, evidently seeking to deal with our wraiths.
No more reserves appeared for the enemy but their wraith lord needed no help destroying the Blood Harvest with its fearsome weapons array. Our reserves did now appear, the Alacrity dropping its deathmarks infront of the guardians advancing left centre and the Vital Component coming in extreme left aiming for the deeper unit of guardians but not yet deploying its passengers.
The deathmarks marked the guardians and wiped them out, aided by their cryptek’s abyssal staff. The Alacrity fired on the wraith lord but failed to injure it, as did the Whip Hand. The Triarch stalker meanwhile was under assault by the enemy warlord and his warlocks and eventually exploded. The left hand guardians fell back after taking heavy losses from the Vital Component.
The Withering Fire continued to trade shots at range with the enemy tanks, one of which had limped off with just one hull point left. The advancing Overlord and his immortals were swapping shots with the central guardians who were shrouded in woodland. The wraiths now assaulted and defeated the banshees who broke and fled the field leaving the enemy left looking precarious though the wraiths were down to two.
The enemy brought on their final reserves dropping behind our left and failing with a grenade attack on our nearby deathmarks. These were swooping hawks and they now occupied high ground threatening to claim linebreaker. Their wraith lord now assaulted and destroyed the Whip Hand whilst the enemy warlord assaulted our deathmarks beginning a struggle of attrition that would last for the rest of the battle. Our cryptek fell in challenge to the Farseer.
Our warriors were deployed from the Alacrity and destroyed the damaged enemy tank that had been skulking in their rear, largely owing to their cryptek’s haywire weapon. The Alacrity inflicted losses on the guardians again almost but not quite destroying them. The Vital Component wrecked the last enemy Wave Serpent.
Our wraiths were being whittled away by the enemy commander and few rangers on the right and the enemy continued to hold in the centre with their rangers despite taking losses from our warriors and the Withering Fire. The swooping hawks and rangers then wiped out our warriors decisively; initially they broke but rallied only to be cut down again.
The enemy wraith lord continued to absorb punishment despite being targeted by the Withering Fire as it joined the assault involving our deathmarks. It began to seriously erode our forces there though one warlock fell and the enemy warlord took a wound eventually.
Our immortals all but destroyed the guardians in the centre as they continued to fall back before our onslaught and our last wraith finally destroyed the last ranger, only to fall to the enemy Executioner. He attacked our command unit psychically causing them to attack each other briefly but fortunately resultant losses were light.
The Vital Component arrived and destroyed the pesky pysker and the tesla fire from the Alacrity which had moved left destroyed most of the swooping hawks which had claimed linebreaker. The action then broke off; we had two deathmarks left in combat with the wraith lord, warlock and Farseer. We had eight immortals with the overlord in the centre, both Night Scythes and the badly damaged Withering Fire.
The enemy had an Exarch and one swooping Hawk claiming linebreaker on our left, three rangers in the centre and just two guardians deep on the left. They had lost all four vehicles including their flyer, one warlock, two units of guardians, the banshees, fire dragons, the Executioner and one unit of rangers, ten units in all plus first blood to us.
We had lost seven complete units including the Blood Harvest and Whip Hand and all three crypteks. We had conceded linebreaker which we had held for much of the battle through our wraiths. Eleven to Eight the final score then. Our losses amounted to 1309 or just under two thirds of those committed with just six units left, two seriously depleted.
The enemy had just ten individuals left spread over four squads: The two survivors of the swooping hawks; two guardians who had narrowly avoided being cut to pieces when their comrades fell to our immortals’ gauss blasters; three rangers; the warlock and his wounded warlord and the pesky wraith lord that had taken so much damage but still stubbornly held on to its final wound. Estimated force value remaining: less than 20%.
19.1.14
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